Funneling and Sculpting of Optical Waves Through Non-Magnetic Metasurfaces

Abstract

Efficient concentration and transport of electromagnetic energy through electromagnetically thick structures often requires resonant phenomenon and careful design considerations. Here, we introduce a realistic non-resonant approach based on electromagnetically thick self-dual metasurfaces that can funnel electromagnetic waves through subwavelength regions and without requiring magnetic materials. By satisfying the self-duality condition, the proposed metasurfaces support impedance-matched propagation and enable reflectionless energy transfer regardless of the metasurface thickness or structural details. This mechanism also allows selected control over the internal field while maintaining reasonable operational bandwidth. Metasurface elements are designed individually, and full-wave simulations confirm the predicted behavior in sample representative cases. The proposed framework provides a general strategy for robust electromagnetic energy routing and confinement, with potential impact in nonlinear optics, sensing and particle manipulation, near-field imaging, advanced absorber technologies, and wide-angle antenna systems.