Patent ID: 8811914

Claim:
A method for processing a terahertz frequency electromagnetic beam, comprising: receiving the terahertz frequency electromagnetic beam via a plurality of stacked layers, wherein each one of the plurality of stacked layers comprises a plurality of metamaterial layers stacked in a three dimensional matrix, wherein each one of the plurality of stacked layers produces a different wave front effecting property, each one of the plurality of metamaterial layers having a plurality of addressable magnetic elements arranged in a matrix comprising a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, where a resonant frequency of each of the plurality of addressable magnetic elements is capable of being programmably changed to form a metamaterial hologram; activating, by a processor, a subset of the plurality of addressable magnetic elements to form the metamaterial hologram in each one of the plurality of metamaterial layers in a first stacked layer of the plurality of stacked layers; and manipulating, by the processor, the terahertz frequency electromagnetic beam with the metamaterial hologram of each one of the plurality of metamaterial layers through the first stacked layer of the plurality of stacked layers, wherein the manipulating comprises performing pre-distortion of an outgoing wave front to compensate for a measured atmospheric distortion that occurs after transmission.