Collimating metalens puts focus on 6G communications

This is the claim of researchers in Japan, whose metalens converts approximately spherical-shaped terahertz waves to aligned terahertz waves. The team’s findings have been published in Applied Physics Express.

The researchers previously developed a low-reflection metasurface - an ultra-thin interface that can manipulate electromagnetic waves - specifically to control terahertz waves. These waves overlap millimetre waves and infrared waves, and, while they can transmit a significant amount of data, they easily attenuate in the atmosphere.

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The technology may not be suitable for long-range wireless communications, but could improve short-range data exchanges, such as residential internet speeds, said paper author Takehito Suzuki, associate professor in the Institute of Engineering at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.

According to Suzuki, the researchers have taken a step toward such application developments by using their metasurface to craft the world's "top" ultra-short metalens that collimates to align an optical system with a distance of 1mm. The metalens is said to be capable of increasing transmitted power by three at the far field, where the signal strength typically weakens.