Accelerating field decay along nonlocal metasurfaces by suppressing the Norton wave

Abstract

Studying the nature of electromagnetic fields of dipole sources over a homogeneous flat ground or impedance surfaces has a long history. In general, at a long distance $r$ from the source, the near-surface field is mostly contributed by the geometrical optics term (describing the radiation pattern), a guided wave, and the higher-order reactive contribution referred to as the Norton wave. In the special case of a perfect magnetic conductor interface, the first two terms vanish, so the residual Norton wave determines the steepest achievable field decay profile of $~r^{-3/2}$ (for a two-dimensional horizontal magnetic dipole). In this letter, we reveal that in the presence of a nonlocal metasurface described by the second-order impedance boundary condition, the field decay can be further accelerated by suppressing the Norton wave (approaching the profiles $r^{-5/2}$ and $r^{-7/2}$ for electric and magnetic fields, respectively). In a proposed practical realization of a nonlocal metasurface, the effect is numerically verified and shown to reduce the edge diffraction effects by 10 dB for the shield diameter of only one wavelength, paving the way toward compact antenna systems.