Tailoring the dispersion of plasmonic nanorods to realize broadband optical meta-waveplates

The response of optical metasurfaces is usually narrowband, and mechanisms to increase their bandwidth often clash with causality and passivity constraints of materials. Here we are able to theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that broadband, strong polarization conversion and quarter-wave plate functionality may be achieved using a single, ultrathin planar metasurface in the visible regime. Our realized sample is based on interleaved silver nanorods with properly tailored frequency dispersion that introduce an abrupt flat 90° phase shift for orthogonal polarizations over a thickness of few tens of nanometers, achieving achromatic quarter-wave plate behavior covering a good portion of the visible spectrum. Analogous design principles are extended to cover the entire visible spectrum and beyond.