High-efficiency polarization conversion based on spatial dispersion modulation of spoof surface plasmon polaritons

In this paper, we propose to achieve high-efficiency polarization conversion based on spatial dispersion modulation of spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPP). Different k is firstly designed in the two transverse directions by aligning an SSPP-supporting fishbone structure in y direction while maintaining free space in x direction. The orthogonal phase difference is introduced by larger k of SSPP waves for y-polarized component of incident waves. Meanwhile, to achieve high efficiency, gradient k in z-direction is designed so that the y-polarized component of incident waves can be coupled perfectly as SSPP waves. By rotating the fishbone structure with respect to the polarization direction of incident waves, different polarization states for transmitted waves can be realized. As an example, a polarization converter prototype with the central working frequency f = 8GHz was designed, fabricated, and measured. Both the simulation and experiment demonstrate the high-efficiency linear-to-circular (LTC) polarization conversion in 6.9-9.6GHz. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America