UC San Diego

A tensor impedance surface waveguide is built using anisotropic unit cells. The waveguide can propagate a confined waveguide mode along its axis while waves incident to the guide at an orthogonal direction pass through as if the waveguides were not present. Both straight and curved implementations are demonstrated. Surface waves incident at an angle to the waveguide show reflection and refraction at the impedance interface. A theoretical model for tensor impedance surface waveguides is generalized to include dispersive unit cells and bending loss around curves. Dispersion results for modes propagating in the waveguide show agreement between the theory, simulation, and experimental measurements. A curved waveguide is also constructed which guides surface waves around a curve and is transparent to surface waves incident at an orthogonal angle.