Metallic Helix Array as a Broadband Wave Plate

This study demonstrates theoretically and experimentally that a metallic helix array can operate as a highly transparent broadband wave plate in propagation directions perpendicular to the axis of helices. The functionality arises from a special property of the helix array, namely, that two branches of elliptically right-handed and left-handed polarized states are nearly rigidly shifted in frequency and their dispersions are controlled by different mechanisms that can be independently tuned by structural parameters.