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2026

Micro‑light comb – structured microwaves

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Structured electromagnetic waves, with their rich degrees of freedom, hold tremendous potential in both fundamental research and practical applications. However, in the microwave frequency band, harnessing these dimensions has traditionally required bulky hardware and complex systems—each dimension often necessitating its own dedicated, specialized equipment for generation, manipulation, and control. This level of complexity has constrained the performance and scalability of structured microwaves, posing a major barrier to their widespread adoption. Recently, a team led by Chang Lin at Peking University—including Yanping Li, Qi-Fan Yang, and others—jointly with Li Wangzhe from the Innovation Academy for Space-Air Information of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as Huang Shanguo from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, published a paper in Nature Photonics presenting a microcomb‑driven microwave photonic antenna array that enables full‑dimensional control of structured microwaves. By modulating a large number of mutually coherent optical comb teeth, this approach allows for the simultaneous, arbitrary manipulation of all dimensions of structured microwaves in a programmable manner using just a single set of hardware, significantly reducing system complexity. The researchers demonstrated a range of functions for structured microwaves that were previously unattainable: including ultra‑multimode vortex microwave synthesis, sub‑microsecond‑level spatiotemporal mode switching, broadband phase–frequency response tuning, wide‑angle two‑dimensional beam scanning, and the most comprehensive multi‑dimensional coupling capabilities to date. This breakthrough paves the way for the development of integrated sensing–communication systems based on structured microwaves: offering 6G networks an ultra‑high communication spectral efficiency of 210 bit s⁻¹ Hz⁻¹ while enabling vortex sensing capable of detecting four‑dimensional information.

First authors: Xiyao Song, Xiangpeng Zhang, Xinlu Gao, Ze Wang. Corresponding authors: Yanping Li, Qi-Fan Yang, Shanguo Huang, Wangzhe Li & Lin Chang. Affiliations: Peking University, Innovation Academy for Space-Air Information, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Full-dimensional control of structured microwaves based on microcombs. Full‑dimensional control of structured microwaves using microcombs.