Stable Electrostatic Levitation using Conformal Metasurfaces with Negative Polarizability
A conceptual and exploratory theoretical study on the feasibility of electrostatic levitation using a finite, conformal metasurface with negative static polarizability () is presented. Previous work has shown that stable electrostatic levitation in 3D media with negative susceptibility is theoretically possible but appears practically unattainable due to extreme experimental constraints. As a viable alternative, here, a simplified 2D system composed of anisotropic, dipolarizable entities arranged over a doubly curved surface and polarized perpendicular to the local tangent plane is modeled, drawing inspiration from recent advances in active metamaterials and aiming to lay the foundation for future realizable devices demonstrating stable electrostatic levitation. Using a self‐consistent dipole–dipole interaction framework and numerical simulations, the existence of equilibrium points satisfying both force cancellation and stability conditions is theoretically demonstrated. The results show that stable levitation of a test charge can be achieved at heights up to ten times the lattice spacing, with full 3D restoring forces enabled by double curvature. These findings suggest that finite 2D metasurfaces may offer a physically realizable route toward electrostatic levitation, potentially enabling novel charged‐particle trapping schemes for future quantum technologies.
Authors
- Rahul Dutta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5254-6994)
- Yang Hao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9949-7226)
Institutions
- Queen Mary University of London (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small Structures
- Published
- 2025-09-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/sstr.202500335
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.43
Funders
- Queen Mary University of London
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council