Generation of orbital angular momentum modes via holographic leaky-wave metasurfaces

Recently, electromagnetic (EM) waves carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) has received considerable attention in increasingly many different realms, such as communication systems, super-resolution imaging, optical communications and quantum state manipulation. In this paper, two different kinds of two dimensional (2-D) holographic leaky-wave metasurfaces with a single OAM mode at a single frequency (18 GHz) are introduced through designs and experiments. The classic leaky-wave and a microwave holography theorem are combined to construct the holographic leaky-wave metasurfaces. The leaky wave metasurfaces-based holographic concept are implemented with isotropic artificial surface impedances and made of hexagonal metallic patches. By varying the size of the metallic patches, the effective impedances may be realized. The monopole launchers are utilized for the excitation of TM surface mode, whereby their wave functions can be approximated by the Hankel function of the second kind. The objective waves represented by the desired beams carrying different orbital angular momentum modes. Electromagnetic full-wave simulations and experimental measurements have been performed to substantiate the proposed method.