Radiation

Scattering

Telecommunications

Computer science

Physical chemistry

Polarization (electrochemistry)

Physics

Radar cross-section

Optics

Chemistry

Radar

Laser & Photonics Review

Electromagnetic (EM) waves have been widely applied in wireless communications, radar detection, navigation, and target recognition. Radiation and scattering are two common behaviors in the EM community, but it remains a long‐standing challenge to control them in a dynamical way, especially using a single, low‐cost, and compact hardware. Here, a promising solution is proposed by combining a programmable metasurface with a radiation array, which can manipulate the scattering properties, digitally and in real‐time, and exhibit different radiation modes simultaneously. More advantageous over previous investigations with the fixed radiation‐scattering performance, a field‐programmable gate array is introduced to extend, realize, and verify the multiple functions of the meta‐microstructure (MMS). As a proof‐of‐concept, multiple functions, including polarization conversion, scattering beam manipulation, diffusion scattering, radar cross‐section reduction, EM waves radiation, and vortex beam generation, have been adequately demonstrated by the MMS prototype.

Programmable Controls to Scattering Properties of a Radiation Array