A lens consisting of an anisotropic near‐zero index metamaterial (NZIM) is introduced for improving the far‐field performance of active electronically scanned arrays (AESA). Several simulation studies demonstrate how the NZIM lens (metalens) can be functionalized to transform the embedded element pattern of an array from a typical cosinusoidal shape to a flat‐topped pattern, dramatically reducing the gain at wider angles. This corresponds to reductions in scan loss and suppression of grating lobes in the desired field of view (FOV), especially for arrays with large element spacing (i.e., sparse or thinned arrays). The metalens concept is demonstrated through several simulation studies illustrating the beam shaping capability of NZIM materials. A fabricated metalens demonstrates full suppression of grating lobes and minimal scan loss with a ±10° FOV, which is ideally suited for limited FOV applications such as geosynchronous satellite communications.

中文翻译：

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一种接近零折射率的超材料透镜，可降低复杂性和高性能有源电子扫描阵列


引入了一种由各向异性近零折射率超材料 （NZIM） 组成的透镜，用于提高有源电子扫描阵列 （AESA） 的远场性能。几项仿真研究表明，如何对 NZIM 透镜（超透镜）进行功能化，以将阵列的嵌入元件图案从典型的余弦形状转换为平顶图案，从而显著降低更广角度的增益。这对应于减少扫描损耗和抑制所需视场 （FOV） 中的栅瓣，特别是对于具有大元件间距的阵列（即稀疏或稀疏阵列）。超透镜概念通过几项仿真研究得到了证明，这些研究说明了 NZIM 材料的光束整形能力。制造的超透镜表现出对栅瓣的完全抑制和最小的扫描损耗，具有 ±10° 的 FOV，非常适合有限的 FOV 应用，例如地球同步卫星通信。