Polarization modulation by tunable electromagnetic metamaterial reflector/absorber

We propose a polarization modulation scheme of electromagnetic (EM) waves through reflection of a tunable metamaterial reflector/absorber. By constructing the metamaterial with resonant unit cells coupled by diodes, we demonstrate that the EM reflections for orthogonal polarized incident waves can be tuned independently by adjusting the bias voltages on the corresponding diodes. Owing to this feature, the reflected EM waves can be electrically controlled to a linear polarization with continuously tunable azimuth angle from 0 to 90 at the resonant frequency, or an elliptical polarization with tunable azimuth angle of the major axis when off the resonant frequency. The proposed property has been verified through both numerical simulations and experimental measurements at microwave band, which enables us to electrically modulate the polarization state of EM waves flexibly. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America