Paper detail

Generation of Accelerating Waves in Smith-Purcell Radiation

Metasurface has recently emerged as a powerful platform to engineer wave packets of free electron radiation at the mesoscale. Here, we propose that accelerating waves can be generated when moving electrons interact with an array of bianisotropic meta-atoms. By changing the intrinsic coupling strength, we show full amplitude coverage and 0-to-π phase switching of Smith-Purcell radiation from bianistropic meta-atoms. This unusual property leads to the creation of Airy beams that shifts along a parabolic trajectory during propagation. Experimental implementation displays that evanescent fields bounded at slotted waveguides can be coupled into accelerating waves via Smith-Purcell radiation from a designer bianisotropic metasuface. Our results offer an alternative route towards free electron lasers with diffraction-free, self-accelerating, and self-healing beam properties.