Highly birefringent metamaterial structure as a tunable partial polarizer.

We consider a highly anisotropic metamaterial structure, composed of parallel metal nanostripes, and show that a thin layer of the material can be used as a tunable partial polarizer. The transmittance of the structure for TE-polarized waves depends strongly on the incidence angle, while for TM-polarized waves, it stays high and essentially constant. In particular, using the structure, the degree of polarization of a partially polarized or unpolarized light can be tuned by changing the incidence angle.

Optical wave retarder based on metal-nanostripe metamaterial.

Wave retarders, including quarter- and half-wave plates, are used in many optical systems for polarization conversion. They are usually realized with anisotropic crystalline materials. However, much thinner and possibly also less expensive wave plates can be made of micro- and nanostructures.