We propose a low-cost, easy-to-fabricate, contactless microwave sensor for dielectric characterization of liquids. The design of the proposed sensor is based on a multiple complementary split-ring resonator (MCSRR) fabricated on a low-cost FR-4 substrate. A glass capillary tube having an inner diameter of 0.008λ0 is inserted in the high electric field region of the MCSRR to carry the liquid under test. The sensor is designed to operate at a resonant frequency of 2.45GHz for an empty tube and shifted resonant peaks are utilized for the dielectric characterization of different liquids. The maximum observed shifts in resonant frequency and Q factor are up to 400MHz and 31, respectively. The numerically established relations are experimentally verified through fabricated sensor for various binary mixtures of water and ethanol. The percentage errors between the calculated and reference permittivity of different samples are noticed to be less than 5%. The proposed device promises to be a cost-effective and convenient solution for accurate dielectric characterization of liquids and their binary aqueous solutions.

Multi‐functional metasurfaces have attracted great attention due to the significant possibilities to realize highly integrated and ultra‐compact meta‐devices. Merging nano‐printing and holographic information multiplexing is one of the effective ways to achieve multi‐functionality, and such a merger can increase the information encoding capacity. However, the current approaches rely on stacking layers and interleaving, where multiple resonators effectively combine different functionalities on the cost of efficiency, design complexity, and challenging fabrication. To address such challenges, a single meta‐nanoresonator‐based tri‐functional metasurface is proposed by combining the geometric phase‐based spin‐decoupling and Malus's law intensity modulation. The proposed strategy effectively improves information capacity owing to the orientation degeneracy of spin‐decoupling rather than layer stacking or super‐cell designs. To validate the proposed strategy, a metasurface demonstrating two helicity‐dependent holographic outputs is presented in far‐field, whereas a continuous nano‐printing image is in near‐field. It is also employed on CMOS‐compatible and cost‐effective hydrogen amorphous silicon providing transparent responses for the whole visible band. As a result, the proposed metasurface has high transmission efficiency in the visible regime and verifies the design strategy without adding extra complexities to conventional nano‐pillar geometry. Therefore, the proposed metasurface opens new avenues in multi‐functional meta‐devices design and has promising applications in anti‐counterfeiting, optical storage and displays.​

Broadband communication with high data rates is a dire need for state-of-the-art wireless technologies. For achieving efficient wireless communication (particularly in an indoor environment), the electromagnetic (EM) waves should maintain their state of polarization despite encountering multiple reflections. Metasurfaces provide a unique platform to design subwavelength-featured meta-reflectarrays which enable the desired retention of the polarization state of an EM wave upon reflection. We present a single-layered broadband meta-reflectarray, simultaneously breaking n-fold (n > 2) rotational and mirror symmetry, which exhibits an unprecedented control over the phase, amplitude, and polarization of a reflected EM wave. This unique control enables the retention of polarization state and recording of spin-encrypted information for the reflected EM waves. Such novel multifunctional meta-reflectarray can be crucial to building an indoor setup for high data rate wireless communications. Meanwhile, the meta-array’s ability to encode phase information provides an extra degree of freedom to structure and control (via incident spin) the reflected EM beam in the desired way. For the proof of concept, we have experimentally demonstrated a spin-encrypted holographic display which reconstructs the recorded holographic image at an image plane for the left circularly polarized (LCP) illumination and exhibits circular dichroism for the right circularly polarized (RCP) incident waves. The proposed meta-array can find applications in 5G indoor wireless communication, chiral sensing, spin-selective imaging, holography, and encryption.