Multifunctional polarization converter based on multilayer reconfigurable metasurface

In the modern wireless communication system,the manipulation for polarization of electromagnetic wave plays a important role in improving the capacity and reliability of communication.In this paper,a multifunctional polarization converter(MFPC)based on the multilayer reconfigurable metasurface is proposed,which can assist the source antenna to transmit and receive multiple polarization signals.The MFPC consists of a grating which can filter out the undesired polarization and four layers of metasurfaces incorporated with PIN diodes.The functions of the MFPC include LTC and LTL polarization conversions,co-polarization transmission and reflection for arbitrary polarization.By changing the states of PIN diodes,the functions of MFPC can be dynamically switched.Loaded on the aperture of source antenna,the proposed MFPC can serve as a transmissive array with multiple polarization channels,and can also provide EM protection for source antenna by reflecting the incoming interference waves.Cascading of the metasurfaces produces Fabry-Perot resonance in the MFPC,and it contributes to the realization of LTC and LTL polarization conversions.To verify the performance of the proposed MFPC,the prototype is fabricated and tested.The measured results show that the fractional bandwidths of four functions are all higher than 31.9% with transmission or reflection coefficients higher than-2 d B.The frequency band of each function is mainly concentrated in S-band.The measured data are in agreement with the simulated results.

High efficiency of broadband transmissive metasurface terahertz polarization converter

Terahertz wave is between microwave and infrared bands in the electromagnetic spectrum with the frequency range from 0.1 THz to 10 THz. Controlling and processing of the polarization state in terahertz wave are the focus due to its great influence on the characteristics. In this paper, a transmissive metasurface terahertz polarization converter is designed in 3D structure with an upper surface of ruler-like rectangular, an intermediate dielectric layer and a lower surface of metal grid wires. Numerical simulations of the converter show that the polarization conversion ratio(PCR) is above 99.9% at 0.288 THz–1.6 THz, the polarization rotation angle(PRA) is close to 90° at 0.06 THz–1.4 THz, and the ellipticity angle(EA) is close to 0° at 0.531 THz–1.49 THz. The origin of the efficient polarization conversion is explained by analyzing the electric field intensity, magnetic field intensity, surface current, electric field energy density, and magnetic field energy density distributions of the converter at 1.19 THz and 0.87 THz, which are consistent with the energy transmittance and transmittance coefficient. In addition, the effects of different thickness and material of intermediate layer, thickness of upper surface material, polarized wave incidence angle, and metasurface materials on the performance of the polarization converter are discussed, and how they affect the conversion performance of the polarization converter are also explained.Our results provide a strong theoretical basis and technical support to develop high performance transmission-type terahertz polarization converters, and play an important role to promote the development of terahertz science and technology.

High efficiency and high transmission asymmetric polarization converter with chiral metasurface in visible and near-infrared region

Polarization manipulation of light is of great importance because it could promote development of wireless communications,biosensing,and polarization imaging.In order to use natural light more efficiently,it is highly demanded to design and fabricate high performance asymmetric polarization converters which could covert the natural light to one particular linearly polarized light with high efficiency.Traditionally,polarizers could be achieved by controllers with crystals and polymers exhibiting birefringence.However,the polarizers are bulky in size and the theoretical conversion efficiency of the polarizers is limited to 0.5 with unpolarized light incidence.In this paper,we propose a polarization converter which could preserve high transmission for one linearly polarized light and convert the orthogonal linearly polarized light to its cross-polarized with high transmittance based on a multi-layer chiral metasurface.Theoretical results show that normally incident y-polarized light preserves high transmittance for the wavelength range from 685 nm to 800 nm while the orthogonal normally incident x-polarized light is efficiently converted to the y-polarized light with high transmittance from 725 nm to 748 nm.Accordingly,for unpolarized light incidence,transmittance larger than 0.5 has been successfully achieved in a broadband wavelength range from 712 nm to 773 nm with a maximum transmittance of 0.58 at 732 nm.

Ultra-wideband reflective polarization converter based on anisotropic metasurface

In this paper, we propose an ultra-wideband reflective linear cross-polarization converter based on anisotropic metasurface. Its unit cell is composed of a square-shaped resonator with intersectant diagonal and metallic ground sheet separated by dielectric substrate. Simulated results show that the converter can generate resonances at four frequencies under normal incident electromagnetic（EM） wave, leading to the bandwidth expansion of cross-polarization reflection. For verification,the designed polarization converter is fabricated and measured. The measured and simulated results agree well with each other, showing that the fabricated converter can convert x- or y-polarized incident wave into its cross polarized wave in a frequency range from 7.57 GHz to 20.46 GHz with a relative bandwidth of 91.2%, and the polarization conversion efficiency is greater than 90%. The proposed polarization converter has a simple geometry but an ultra wideband compared with the published designs, and hence possesses potential applications in novel polarization-control devices.

Tunable wide-angle multi-band mid-infrared linear-to-linear polarization converter based on a graphene metasurface

We present a high-efficiency tunable wide-angle multi-band reflective linear-to-linear(LTL)polarization converter,which is composed of an array of two L-shaped graphene patches with different sizes.In the mid-infrared region,the proposed converter can transform x-polarized wave into y-polarized wave at four resonant frequencies.The polarization conversion ratios of the four bands reach 94.4%,92.7%,99.3%,and 93.1%,respectively.By carefully choosing the geometric parameter,triple-band LTL polarization conversion can also be realized.The three polarization conversion ratios reach 91.50%,99.20%,and 97.22%,respectively.The influence of incident angle on the performances of the LTL polarization converter is investigated,and it is found that our polarization converter shows the angle insensitivity.Also,the dynamically tunable properties of the proposed polarization converter are numerically studied by changing Fermi energy.All the simulation results are conducted by finite element method.

A linear-to-circular polarization converter based on I-shaped circular frequency selective surfaces

In this paper, a linear-to-circular polarization converter using a three-layer frequency selective surface based on Ishaped circular structure resonant is presented and investigated. Numerical simulations exhibit that when the normal ypolarized waves impinge on this device propagating towards ＋z direction, the two orthogonal components of the transmitted waves have a 90° phase difference as well as the nearly equal amplitudes at the resonant frequency of 7.04 GHz, which means that the left-hand circular polarization is realized in transmission. For validating the proposed design, a prototype which consists of 25 × 25 elements has been designed, manufactured and measured. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulated ones, showing that the polarization conversion transmission is over-3 dB in the frequency range of 5.22–8.08 GHz and the axial ratio is below 3 dB from 5.86 GHz to 7.34 GHz.

Wideband linear-to-circular polarization conversion realized by a transmissive anisotropic metasurface

We propose a metasurface which consists of three conductive layers separated by two dielectric layers. Each conductive layer consists of a square array of square loop apertures, however, a pair of corners of each square metal patch surrounded by the square loop apertures have been truncated, so it becomes an orthotropic structure with a pair of mutually perpendicular symmetric axes u and v. The simulated results show that the metasurface can be used as a wideband transmission-type polarization converter to realize linear-to-circular polarization conversion in the frequency range from12.21 GHz to 18.39 GHz, which is corresponding to a 40.4% fractional bandwidth. Moreover, its transmission coefficients at x-and y-polarized incidences are completely equal. We have analyzed the cause of the polarization conversion, and derived several formulas which can be used to calculate the magnitudes of cross-and co-polarization transmission coefficients at y-polarized incidence, together with the phase difference between them, based on the two independent transmission coefficients at u-and v-polarized incidences. Finally, one experiment was carried out, and the experiment and simulated results are in good agreement with each other.