Achieving Wide-Band Linear-To-Circular Polarization Conversion Using Ultra-Thin Bi-Layered Metasurfaces
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Achieving wide-band linear-to-circular polarization conversion using ultra-thin bi- layered metasurfaces Yongfeng Li, Jieqiu Zhang, Shaobo Qu, Jiafu Wang, Lin Zheng, Yongqiang Pang, Zhuo Xu, and Anxue Zhang Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 117, 044501 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4906220 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4906220 View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/117/4?ver=pdfcov Published by the AIP Publishing Articles you may be interested in Optical spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion in ultra-thin metasurfaces with arbitrary topological charges Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 101905 (2014); 10.1063/1.4895620 A linear-to-circular polarization converter with half transmission and half reflection using a single-layered metamaterial Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 021110 (2014); 10.1063/1.4890623 Polarization conversions of linearly and circularly polarized lights through a plasmon-induced transparent metasurface J. Appl. 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Downloaded to ] IP: 117.32.153.182 On: Tue, 17 Nov 2015 13:54:30 JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 117, 044501 (2015) Achieving wide-band linear-to-circular polarization conversion using ultra-thin bi-layered metasurfaces Yongfeng Li,1,a) Jieqiu Zhang,1,a) Shaobo Qu,1 Jiafu Wang,1,a) Lin Zheng,1 Yongqiang Pang,1 Zhuo Xu,2 and Anxue Zhang3 1College of Science, Air Force Engineering University, Xi’an 710051, People’s Republic of China 2Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education, Xi’an Jiao-tong University, Xi’an 710049, People’s Republic of China 3School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049 Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China (Received 19 July 2014; accepted 7 January 2015; published online 22 January 2015) In this paper, we propose to achieve wideband linear-to-circular (LTC) polarization conversion by ultra-thin bi-layered metasurfaces. As an example, an LTC polarization conversion metasurface operating in 11.4–14.3 GHz is designed and fabricated, which is composed of two layers of metallic pattern arrays separated by a 1.5 mm-thick dielectric spacer. When linearly polarized waves impinge on the bi-layered metasurface, LTC polarization conversion transmission is greater than 90% over a wide frequency range from 11.0 GHz to 18.3 GHz. Meanwhile, the axis ratio is lower than 3 dB in 9.8–18.3 GHz. This wide-band and highly efficient LTC polarization conversion transmission is analyzed theoretically. The measured LTC polarization conversion transmissions are well consistent with the simulated results. VC 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4906220] I. INTRODUCTION plasmons and surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs).2 A com- posite metamaterial has been proposed to simultaneously Polarization is an important characteristic of electro- achieve the polarization selectivity and the 90 polarization magnetic waves because of the inherent polarization sensi- rotation for the transmitted waves.1 As for the linear-to- tivity of materials, especially in the visible spectrum.1–4 circular (LTC) polarization conversion, ultra-thin quarter- Conventional polarization manipulations are always realized wave plates based on plasmonic metasurfaces were designed using the wave-plate, which is made of birefringent materials and analyzed.12 A double-ring-chain metamaterial that ena- such as crystalline solids and liquid crystals. However, the bles efficient polarization conversion of terahertz waves has large thickness and the narrow bandwidth prevent them from been presented.13 In the work, the linear-to-linear and linear- being integrated into the micro-optical systems. Currently, to-elliptic polarization conversions can be simply achieved polarization manipulation can be achieved by the anisotropic by altering the dimensional parameters of the unit cells of or chiral materials,5,6 yet still with thickness limitations and metasurfaces. As for LTC polarization conversion, multi- bulky configurations. layer structures are always used. For example, a wideband Until recent years, metasurfaces provide a new way of polarization manipulation. Metasurfaces are periodic or circular polarizer in Ka-band was presented using a multi- quasi-periodic planar arrays of sub-wavelength elements.5–19 layer frequency selective surface based on split rings bisected by a metal strip and the axial ratios are lower than The sub-wavelength unit cells always have more freedoms in 14 manipulating the amplitude and phase of the reflected/ 3 dB in the frequency range of 25.5–36.5 GHz. A metasur- refracted waves.7,8 Because of the ultra-thin thickness and face with the capability of converting the linearly polarized (LP) signal from a source antenna into a circularly polarized low loss of metasurface-based polarization manipulators, 6 many research interests have been concentrated in this field. signal was proposed and studied. For example, the polarization control of the reflected waves In this paper, we achieve wide-band LTC polarization for a reflective metasurface is studied.9 Ultra-wideband conversion transmission using an ultra-thin (1.5 mm-thick) linear-to-linear polarization conversion is achieved using an bi-layered metasurface. The thickness is about k0/14, with k0 ultra-thin reflective metasurface.10 An ultra-thin, broadband, being the central working wavelength. The simulated and and highly efficient tri-layered metasurface-based terahertz experimental results indicate that the polarization conversion polarization converter that is capable of rotating a linear transmission is greater than 90% over a wide frequency polarization state into its orthogonal one has been demon- range from 11.0 GHz to 18.3 GHz, and the simulated axis strated due to the Fabry-perot-like resonance.11 An enhanced ratios of the transmitted waves are less than À3 dB in the fre- optical rotation of the zero-order transmitted light through a quency range of 9.8À18.3 GHz. The extracted polarization silver film with an array of perforated S-shaped holes was conversion transmission from the measured co- and cross- realized due to the contributions of both the localized surface polarization transmission for linearly polarized wave inci- dence displays a good agreement with the simulated results. a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic addresses: The calculated ellipticity angle indicates that the operating [email protected]; [email protected]; and [email protected] bandwidth of the LTC polarization conversion metasurface 0021-8979/2015/117(4)/044501/7/$30.00 117, 044501-1 VC 2015 AIP Publishing LLC [This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to ] IP: 117.32.153.182 On: Tue, 17 Nov 2015 13:54:30 044501-2 Li et al. J. Appl. Phys. 117, 044501 (2015) pffiffiffi is from 11.4 GHz to 14.3 GHz. The proposed metasurface 2 TRCP y ¼ ðÞTxy À iTyy : (5) may find potential applications in the design of wide-band À 2 circular polarization antennas. From (4) and (5), it can be found that in order to achieve high-efficiency LTC polarization conversion transmission II. LINEAR-TO-CIRCULAR POLARIZATION under linear polarization incidence, the amplitudes of the co- CONVERSION METASURFACE and cross-polarization transmission coefficients should be approximately equal and as high as possible. Meanwhile, the A. Linear-to-circular polarization conversion phase difference between the co- and cross-polarization transmission transmission coefficients must be np/2. Suppose a beam of y-polarized wave normally incidents onto a polarization conversion metasurface from the þz B. Design of the LP-to-CP polarization conversion direction. The electric field component of the incident wave metasurface ikzz can be expressed as Ei ¼ Ey ¼ yE^ 0e . The transmitted In order to realize high-efficiency LTC polarization con- electric field can be written as version, we take advantage of the polarization rotation per- formance of metasurfaces. By delicate design, both the phase Et ¼ yT^ yyEi þ xT^ xyEi: (1) and amplitude of co-/cross-polarization transmission coeffi- The transmission coefficients can be expressed as Tyy ¼ tyy cients can be tailored to manipulate polarization of waves exp(i /yy), Txy ¼ txyexp(i/xy), where tyy and txy are the ampli- according to our will. Here, a class of bi-layered metasurface composed of two metallic gratings in orthogonal directions tudes of transmission coefficients Tyy and Txy; /yy and /xy and two linear polarization rotators is proposed to realize the are the phases of transmission coefficients Tyy and Txy.We LTC polarization conversion transmission. use TLCP-y and TRCP-y to denote the LTC polarization conver- Figure 1 gives schematic views of the designed sion transmission coefficients. tLCP-y, tRCP-y and /LCP-y, bi-layered metasurface, which is composed of two layers of /RCP-y represent the corresponding amplitudes and phases. Then the electric fields of the transmitted LCP wave and metallic pattern arrays [see in Figs. 1(a) and 1(b)] and a RCP wave can be expressed as dielectric spacer between them. In the design, a 1.5 mm thick F4B (e ¼ 2.65 and tand ¼ 0.001) substrate is used as the pffiffiffi r ÀÁ spacer dielectric. The geometrical parameter a is the repeti- 2 ip E ¼ T E e 2 x^ þ E y^ ; (2) LCP LCPÀy 2 i i tion period of the unit cell, l is the length of the obliquely ffiffiffi placed short metallic wire, and l is the length of the short p ÀÁ 1 2 ip metallic wire.