Cavity-based linear-to-circular polarization converter

This paper presents a polarization converter to convert a linearly polarized (LP) incident wave into an outgoing circularly polarized (CP) wave. It is constructed by a 2D array of thin cavities, with each cavity etched with three slots. The front slot is used to couple the LP wave into the cavity, while the backside orthogonal slots are utilized to couple the field out of the cavity with the same amplitude and 90 degrees out-of-phase; subsequently, a CP wave is formed at the other side of the converter. As a proof-of-concept, a sample of the proposed converter is fabricated and measured in the microwave regime. Eventually, a perfect CP wave is demonstrated after the LP wave passes through the converter. The proposed linear-to-circular polarization converter features an extremely low insertion loss of around 0.1 dB and a high polarization conversion efficiency of 0.97. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America