Multifunctional reconfigurable reflective metasurface for polarization conversion.

Multifunctional and reconfigurable metasurfaces are increasingly important as they facilitate the dynamic manipulation of electromagnetic waves, enabling adaptive responses to varying communication requirements and environmental conditions-a characteristic feature of 6G networks. This paper presents a design for a multifunctional reconfigurable metasurface that can convert linearly polarized (LP) electromagnetic waves to their orthogonal (OLP) counterparts in frequency band-1 (4.85 to 6.93 GHz) and to circularly polarized (CP) waves in frequency band-2 (8.3 to 9.3 GHz) with a relatively thinner substrate, broader reflection bandwidths and improved angular stability. The proposed metasurface unit cell, when loaded with PIN diodes, allows for switching between the multifunctional operations mentioned earlier and a simple reflection operation over the same frequency bands. The paper offers a theoretical explanation for the fundamental cause of this multifunctional and reconfigurable performance, and a sample prototype consisting of 17 times 17 unit cells is fabricated, measured, and verified against simulation results.