Dog Bone Triplet Metamaterial Wave Plate

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel broadband metamaterial wave plate that uses negative refractive index properties to achieve large birefringence, extending the operational bandwidth significantly beyond previous narrow-band designs.

Contribution

The authors design and experimentally demonstrate a W-band quasi-optical half wave plate using a Pancharatnam method to substantially increase bandwidth of NRI-based wave plates.

Findings

Achieved more than double the bandwidth of traditional NRI-HWP.

Demonstrated both simulated and experimental results showing phase difference broadening.

Validated the potential for practical broadband polarization control using metamaterials.

Abstract

Metamaterials are artificially made sub-wavelength structures arranged in periodic arrays. They can be designed to interact with electromagnetic radiation in many different and interesting ways such as allowing radiation to experience a negative refractive index (NRI). We have used this technique to design and build a quasi-optical Half Wave Plate (HWP) that exhibits a large birefringence by virtue of having a positive refractive index in one axis and a NRI in the other. Previous implementations of such NRI-HWP have been narrow band ($\sim$1-3%) due to the inherent reliance on needing a resonance to create the NRI region. We manufacture a W-band prototype of a novel HWP that uses the Pancharatnam method to extend the bandwidth (up to more than twice) of a usual NRI-HWP. Our simulated and experimentally obtained results despite their differences show that a broadening of a flat region of the phase difference is possible even with the initially steep gradient for a single plate.