UC Irvine

We present the general conditions to realize a fourth-order exceptional point of degeneracy (EPD) in two uniform (i.e., invariant along z) lossless and gainless coupled transmission lines (CTLs), namely, a degenerate band edge (DBE). Until now the DBE has been shown only in periodic structures. In contrast, the CTLs considered here are uniform and subdivided into four cases where the two TLs support combinations of forward propagation, backward propagation, and evanescent modes (when neglecting the mutual coupling). We demonstrate, for the first time, that a DBE is supported in uniform CTLs when there is proper coupling between: 1) propagating modes and evanescent modes, 2) forward and backward propagating modes, or 3) four evanescent modes (two in each direction). We also show that the loaded quality factor of uniform CTLs exhibiting a fourth-order EPD at k=0 is robust to series losses due to the fact that the degenerate modes do not advance in phase. We also provide a microstrip possible implementation of a uniform CTL exhibiting a DBE using periodic series capacitors with very subwavelength unit-cell length. Finally, we show an experimental verification of the existence DBE for a microstrip implementation of a CTL supporting coupled propagating and evanescent modes.