Bandwidthoflinearphasevariationand-Nature.docVIP

Supplementary Information Active impedance metasurface with full 360( reflection phase tuning Bo O. Zhu, Junming Zhao, Yijun Feng School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to B.O. Z. (bzhu@nju.edu.cn) or Y. F. (yjfeng@nju.edu.cn) 1. Bandwidth of linear phase variation and considerations for beam steering application The linearity of the phase variation is an important issue in application of the impedance metasurface, especially in beam steering reflectarray antenna. According to the reflection coefficient formula, and assuming, the reflection phase can be expressed as with the range between 0 to 2(, where is the imaginary part of the surface impedance. To achieve a linear phase function as , it is required that , ( S1) where, t is the slope and b the coordinate on the phase axis. Equation (S1) indicates that in order to realize linear reflection phase variation, should be similar to a tangent function of the frequency. Observing Fig. 4(a), we find that the surface reactance within the two poles and one zero in between behave quite similarly to a tangent function in one period. Therefore, by optimizing the inductance and capacitance in the half unit cell, linear reflection phase variation can be obtained approximately within , as shown by the circuit model results in Fig. S1(a). Outside this phase range, the linearity can still extend for a certain frequency band at either side resulting in a total linear phase range of more than . The frequency bandwidth for the linear phase variation is essentially determined by the separation between the two poles. By tuning the capacitors in the half unit cell, the linear phase curve can be shifted without too much distortion, as shown in Fig. S1(a). Furthermore, a frequency band with 360o full phase control can be produced when the phase curve shift is larger than its l