Photonic crystal polarizers and polarizing beam splitters

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates microwave-scale 2D photonic crystal devices that act as polarizers and polarizing beam splitters, exhibiting Malus law and versatile polarization splitting capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces experimentally validated photonic crystal polarizers and beam splitters with tunable polarization splitting, surpassing conventional devices in versatility.

Findings

Observed Malus law in photonic crystal polarizers

Demonstrated polarization splitting with tunable order

Validated effectiveness at microwave frequencies

Abstract

We have experimentally demonstrated polarizers and polarizing beam splitters based on microwave-scale two-dimensional photonic crystals. Using polarized microwaves within certain frequency bands, we have observed a squared-sinusoid (Malus) transmission law when using the photonic crystal as a polarizer. The photonic crystal also functions as a polarizing beamsplitter; in this configuration it can be engineered to split incident polarizations in either order, making it more versatile than conventional, Brewster-angle beamsplitters.