Inverse design of plasma metamaterial devices with realistic elements

Abstract: In an expansion of a previous study [1], we apply inverse design methods to produce two-dimensional plasma metamaterial devices with realistic plasma elements which incorporate quartz envelopes, collisionality (loss), non-uniform density profiles, and resistance to experimental error/perturbation. Backpropagated finite difference frequency domain simulations are used to design waveguides and demultiplexers operating under the transverse magnetic polarization. Optimal devices with realistic elements are compared to previous devices with idealized elements, and several parameter initialization schemes for the optimization algorithm are explored. Demultiplexing and waveguiding are demonstrated for microwave-regime devices composed of plasma elements with reasonable space-averaged plasma frequencies ~10 GHz and a collision frequency ~1 GHz, allowing for future in-situ training and experimental realization of these designs.