Coherently time-varying metasurfaces

Abstract: Known coherent metasurfaces control interference of waves of a given frequency with other coherent waves at the same frequency, either illuminating from a different direction or created as intermodulation products. In this paper, we introduce a class of metasurfaces that are modulated in time coherently with the illuminating radiation. Importantly, such modulation opens a possibility to control reflection, absorption, and transmission at multiple frequencies, including illuminations by two or more incoherent waves. In particular, we study dynamic resistive layers and show how to use them to design thin multi-frequency perfect absorbers that overcome the bandwidth limit for static linear absorbers. Furthermore, we demonstrate possibilities of remote tuning of the absorption level. We hope that this work opens up novel avenues in wave engineering using coherent modulation of metasurface parameters.