Broadband linear polarization conversion across complete Ku band based on ultrathin metasurface

Abstract

This paper proposes a double crescent-shaped ultrathin metasurface for efficient conversion of the linear polarization of electromagnetic (EM) waves. Proposed metasurface is printed on a 1.5-mm thick substrate. It is capable of converting a linearly polarized wave into cross-polarized waves in a broadband range from 11.9 to 18.05 GHz, thus covering 102.5 % of the Ku-band with polarization conversion ratio (PCR) above 90 %. In addition, structural analysis based on the study of current distribution and formulation of equivalent circuit model is carried out to have a deeper insight into polarization conversion mechanisms. Meanwhile, a comparative analysis is conducted, which demonstrates the advantages of the proposed crescent-shaped meta-atom. Finally, a prototype of the proposed metasurface is fabricated and tested. The results obtained for our metasurface have an excellent agreement both with the simulation and theoretical results. Applications of the proposed metasurface can be further extended to orbital angular momentum, high-gain surface, focused arrays and so on.