Concept of Independent Reflection Magnitude and Phase Using an Electromechanical Metasurface

A simple concept to perfectly decouple the reflection magnitude and phase of a reflective metasurface is proposed. For a linearly-polarized illumination, a full 2π phase is achieved in reflection by physically displacing the unit cell normal to the surface, with respect to a fixed reference and source, while the reflection magnitude is independently controlled via an integrated resistive element inside the unit cell. This proposed concept is demonstrated using full-wave simulations, which is the first step towards an electromechanical metasurface with truly independent real-time amplitude and phase control.