Efficient conversion from spoof surface plasmon polaritons to radiation mode

A direct conversion from spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) to radiation mode is proposed. A modified parallel two-wire SSPP transmission line is the key to the conversion, which is composed of traditional unit cells with slots among them. Taking advantages of the slots, the phase velocity of electromagnetic waves is larger than that of light, leading to the radiation. Both simulated and measured results show that the radiation occurs from 7.6 to 11 GHz, and the radiation angle keeps nearly stable in the whole operating frequency band, which can be predicted by theoretical calculation. The average gain and efficiency is 6.41 dBi and around 90%, respectively. The simple structure with flexibly tunable operating frequency makes the proposed design promising in planar integrated communication systems. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America