Information Metamaterial and Metasurface - From Concept to System

Instead of using effective medium model, we propose to characterize metamaterials by digital coding 0 and 1. One can control the scattering behaviors of electromagnetic (EM) waves with different coding sequences on metamaterial. Based on this idea, we further propose the concept of information metamaterial, which sets up a bridge between the physical world and digital world. The information metamaterial opens a new direction of metamaterial, in which both physical principles and digital signal processing methods can be used to manipulate the EM waves. In the new framework, metamaterial is not only an effective medium, but also a real-time information processing system.