RCS Diversity of Electromagnetic Wave Carrying Orbital Angular Momentum

An electromagnetic (EM) wave with orbital angular momentum (OAM) has a helical wave front, which is different from that of the plane wave. The phase gradient can be found perpendicular to the direction of propagation and proportional to the number of OAM modes. Herein, we study the backscattering property of the EM wave with different OAM modes, i.e., the radar cross section (RCS) of the target is measured and evaluated with different OAM waves. As indicated by the experimental results, different OAM waves have the same RCS fluctuation for the simple target, e.g., a small metal ball as the target. However, for complicated targets, e.g., two transverse-deployed small metal balls, different RCSs can be identified from the same incident angle. This valuable fact helps to obtain RCS diversity, e.g., equal gain or selective combining of different OAM wave scattering. The majority of the targets are complicated targets or expanded targets; the RCS diversity can be utilized to detect a weak target traditionally measured by the plane wave, which is very helpful for anti-stealth radar to detect the traditional stealth target by increasing the RCS with OAM waves.