Polarization beam splitting through an anisotropic metamaterial slab realized by a layered metal-dielectric structure

We report a polarization beam splitter (PBS) utilizing the anomalous reflection and transmission of an anisotropic metamaterial slab. By properly design of the constitutive tensors of the slab, PBS is achieved with little dependence on incident angle and slab thickness. The realization of the proposed PBS in the optical range is achieved by layered metal-dielectric nanostructured system, which could be modeled as an effective anisotropic metamaterial with the desired constitutive tensors. The full-wave electromagnetic simulation has confirmed the optical polarization splitting with an extinction ratio of over 20 dB by a slab of an alternating silver and silicon carbide multilayer. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.