Artificial Microwave Volume Holograms Based on Printed Disk Media: Theory and Measurement of Single-Grating Holograms

A new type of complex electromagnetic structure, the artificial microwave volume hologram (AMVH), has been developed. The structure consists of cascaded planar lattices of metallic circular patches with varying size and can be designed to have an effective dielectric modulation that follows a holographic interference pattern. Under the illumination of certain electromagnetic waves, an AMVH can reproduce a required wave field pattern based on its design, just like an optical volume hologram. A theoretical model, namely the self-consistent dynamic-dipole interaction theory, has been presented to characterize AMVHs for wave scattering and beam reconstruction. It can be used for designing and optimizing AMVHs. Comparisons with the coupled-wave theory (CWT) and a full-wave finite element method analysis have been made to validate the proposed theory. A prototype AMVH has been fabricated and measured, which has confirmed the AMVH concept as well as the theoretical model