A Reconfigurable Submillimeter-Wave Polarizer Based on Phase-Change Materials

A reconfigurable sub millimeter-wave polarizer based on phase-change materials is presented in the work. The polarizer consists of7×7 microstrip patch units. The patch in the unit is excited by the slot on the bottom layer. Four corners of the patch are coated with GeTe phase-change materials. By changing the state of the GeTe through laser, the polarizer can convert the linear polarization to left-hand and right-hand circular polarization. The polarizer has an impedance bandwidth of 6.4 ^% from 96 to 102.4 GHz and an axial-ratio bandwidth of 8.4% from 96 to 104.4 GHz. The proposed polarizer has potential applications in imaging, tomography, sensing, and 6G communication.