Controllable Polarization Rotator with Broadband High Transmission Using All-Dielectric Metasurfaces

In recent years, how to fully manipulate the polarization state of linearly polarized (LP) light has become an emerging research hotspot in the region of photonics. Here, a novel alternative approach based on all-dielectric metasurfaces to realize and control the polarization state of light with broadband and high transmission is theoretically and numerically investigated. In contrast with the polarization rotation mechanism of non-chiral metasurfaces, the proposed configuration can be illustrated by the Jones matrix in a theoretical analysis. The proposed design is based on multi-conversion of the incident linearly polarized light in a double-layer quarter-wave plate structure. Through an elaborate design of the structural units, a one-layer quarter-wave plate structure can convert a linearly polarized light to a circularly polarized state. An arbitrary polarization rotation with high efficiency (>88%) and broadband (approximately equal to the bandwidth of quarter-wave plate) can be achieved through the collective effect of the two quarter-wave plates. The proposed approach based on all-dielectric metasurfaces exhibits the capacity of arbitrarily manipulating the polarization states, which can facilitate future applications in photonics.