Classification of Bianisotropic Metasurfaces from Reflectance and Transmittance Measurements

Using fundamental electromagnetic properties of metasurfaces, we build a platform to classify reciprocal bianisotropic metasurfaces from typical experimental measurements and determine isotropic, anisotropic, bi-isotropic (chiral), and bianisotropic (so-called omega) properties. We provide experimental guidelines to identify each class by measuring macroscopic scattering parameters, that is, reflection and transmission coefficients upon plane wave illumination with linear and/or circular polarization. We explicitly provide a recipe of which metasurface properties can and cannot be inferred by means of the chosen polarization, reflection, and transmission properties. We also clarify common confusions in the classification of anisotropic versus chiral metasurfaces based on circular dichroism measurements presented in the recent literature.