Approach of realizing arbitrary wavefront manipulation with continuous meander line structures

In the paper, we systematically present the approach of realizing arbitrary wavefront manipulation with continuous meander line structures that can send the outgoing light with the opposite polarization in respect to the incident light into desired directions. The manipulation behavior is found to be wavelength-dependent, analogous to the traditional grating. Propagation characteristic and filed analysis are used to understand the generation of the polarization conversed outgoing light. The results suggest that the surface mode of TM component mainly governs at long wavelength and the oscillating mode of TE component is dominant at short wavelength, resulting in a broad operation region. The backward process, i.e., deriving a special function based on the given irradiation pattern, verifies the generation of the approach. The finding gives an alternative to realize the wavefront manipulation of transmitted light with a thin metal device and an insight into the traditional meander line structure.