Polarization-diverse Detection at Microwave Frequencies Using A Passive Metasurface Aperture

Metasurfaces' ability to control electromagnetic wave propagation has led to a rapid paradigm shift in wireless operation. These metasurfaces are often called reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) due to active tuning elements distributed across the meta-atoms comprising the metasurface array. However, each of these dynamic meta-atoms requires additional DC power lines and biasing circuitry for active tuning. Additionally, achieving polarization diverse operations using compact metasurface configurations is challenging due to the complexity involved in polarization detection. To address these limitations, we propose a passive metasurface array architecture that is both polarization sensitive and capable of altering radiation patterns with frequency diversity. In particular, we designed a polarization-sensitive meta-atom model with added randomness in the scattering behavior and extended it to a polarization-diverse-frequency-selective array. By capturing the electric fields scattered off from the metasurface, we can numerically acquire the polarization information of the incoming signal. The proposed polarization-diverse array can simplify the polarization measurement techniques and may find its application in polarization sensitive sensing and imaging operations.