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Twist-Symmetric Periodic Structures

Properties and Applications

Time: Mon 2021-11-22 15.00

Location: H1, Teknikringen 33, Stockholm

Language: English

Subject area: Electrical Engineering

Doctoral student: Oskar Zetterström , Elektroteknisk teori och konstruktion

Opponent: Associate Professor Jorge Ruiz-Cruz, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

Supervisor: Oscar Quevedo-Teruel, Elektroteknisk teori och konstruktion; Martin Norgren, Elektroteknisk teori och konstruktion; Dr Nelson Fonseca, European Space Agency

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Abstract

In this thesis, periodic structures with higher symmetries symmetries are discussed. The main focus of the thesis is on twist symmetries. Importantly, the attractive properties of twist symmetries for the control of electromagnetic wave propagation are demonstrated. Furthermore, the additional degree of freedom offered by twist symmetries is used to design two microwave devices.

A structure is twist-symmetric if its periodicity can be described by the geometrical operation consisting of a translation and a rotation around an axis. In this thesis, it is demonstrated that there are no stop-bands between the first q modes in the Brillouin diagram of a twist-symmetric structure, where q is the symmetry order. The importance of the symmetry to the absence or presence of stop-bands is illustrated by studying structures where the symmetry is gradually broken. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that a twist-symmetric structure can produce a higher and less dispersive effective refractive index, compared to a conventional periodic structure. These characteristics are attractive for the design of microwave devices. To provide insight into the physics of twist symmetry, a mode matching formulation is derived to analyze twist-symmetric coaxial transmission lines. The formulation is used to highlight the importance of higher order coupling on the response in structures with varying order of the twist symmetry. 

In this thesis, we also discuss another type of symmetry; polar glide symmetry. A periodic structure possesses a polar glide symmetry if its periodicity can be described by the geometrical operation consisting of a translation and a reflection in a cylindrical surface. It is demonstrated that there is no stop-band between the first two modes in a polar glide structure, which is similar to what has been reported for Cartesian glide symmetry previously. Furthermore, twist symmetry and polar glide symmetry is combined into twisted polar glide symmetry. The effect of this combination on the stop-band between the second and third modes is demonstrated. It is concluded that this type of symmetry finds application in filter design.

Finally, the additional design freedom offered by twist symmetry is used to produce two microwave components. A reconfigurable phase shifter is designed, where the phase delay in the phase shifter depends on the order of the twist symmetry. Furthermore, a flat lens is designed to transform a spherical wave into a quasi-planar wave. The focusing properties of the lens is obtained by locally varying the order of the symmetry throughout the lens aperture. 

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