A convenient photopolarimeter based on a polarization sensitive metamaterial

The microstructure, simulation, mechanism, and measurement of a convenient photopolarimeter based on a polarization sensitive metamaterial are presented in this paper. The absorptivity of the metamaterial photopolarimeter (MP) is innovatively used to describe and reflect the polarization of the incident electromagnetic waves (EMWs). The MP sandwich microstructures are periodic asymmetric microstructure on the metasurface, a flame retardant 4 (FR4) interlayer, and a continuous copper film on the substrate. Both the full wave electromagnetic simulation and the measurement on the fabricated MP are performed to examine the absorption performance for oblique incident EMWs with different polarizations. The absorptivity caused by polarizations is 99.88% that is a key index to represents the polarization detection sensitivity and precision. The distributions of the electromagnetic fields are demonstrated to explore the physical mechanism of polarization sensitivity. Moreover, the operating range can be easily customized by modifying its microstructures and components. The proposed MP has distinctive merits that the conventional polarization detection and analysis systems do not possess, such as strong detectability, simple structure, mature process, strong flexibility, and ultrathin thickness.