| Abstract: | Polarization is an important characteristic of electromagnetic (EM) waves, and efficient manipulations over EM wave polarizations
are always desirable in practical applications. Here, we review the recent efforts in controlling light polarizations with
metamaterials, at frequencies ranged from microwave to visible. We first presented a 4 × 4 version transfer matrix method
(TMM) to study the scatterings by an anisotropic metamaterial of EM waves with arbitrary propagating directions and polarizations.
With the 4 × 4 TMM, we discovered several amazing polarization manipulation phenomena based on the reflection geometry and
proposed corresponding model metamaterial systems to realize such effects. Metamaterial samples were fabricated with the help
of finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) simulations, and experiments were performed to successfully realize these ideas at
both microwave and visible frequencies. Efforts in employing metamaterials to manipulate light polarizations based on the
transmission geometry are also reviewed. |
