Highly efficient polarization converter with wide angular stability

Area of Science:

• Electromagnetics and Wave Propagation
• Metamaterials and Plasmonics
• Applied Physics

Background:

• Modern communication, radar, and sensing systems require efficient polarization control.
• Spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPP) offer a promising platform for manipulating electromagnetic waves at sub-wavelength scales.
• Existing polarization converters often lack multi-band capabilities or efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and demonstrate a high-efficiency, multi-band polarization converter.
• To achieve independent control over the transmission phase for orthogonal polarizations.
• To validate the performance of the proposed structure through simulations and experiments.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing an anisotropic SSP structure with spatial distribution.
• Employing an equivalent circuit method to analyze the dispersion mechanism.
• Fabricating a prototype for experimental validation of numerical simulations.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated linear-to-circular polarization conversion at 4, 10, 13.5, and 15.54 GHz.
• Achieved circular-to-orthogonal polarization conversion at 7.5 and 14.8 GHz.
• Realized cross-polarization conversion for linearly polarized waves at 7.5 and 14.8 GHz.

Conclusions:

• The proposed SSPP structure provides versatile multi-band polarization conversion capabilities.
• Experimental and simulation results confirm the structure's effectiveness for linear-to-circular, linear-to-linear, and circular-to-circular conversions.
• The device is suitable for applications in C-band, X-band, and Ku-band communication, radar, and sensing systems.