A Reflective Polarization Converting Metasurface at X -Band Frequencies

A polarization converting metasurface that operates in the X-band is designed and fabricated. The metasurface converts a linearly polarized incident electromagnetic wave to an orthogonal polarization upon reflection. The design has a subwavelength thickness of 1.27 mm (0.04 λ), a half-power bandwidth of 22%, and a polarization conversion ratio of 99.4%. The metasurface was fabricated with a low-cost printed circuit board process. It is realized by cascading three patterned metallic sheets in order to achieve the desired polarization conversion and high reflection. The polarization conversion is accomplished by guiding and coupling electromagnetic energy between pairs of orthogonal slots in a ground plane, placed at the edges of each unit cell. The performance of an experimental prototype showed close agreement with simulation.