Artificial dielectrics can he made to exhibit strong birefringence. This pr
operty may be used to construct waveplates for a variety of applications. I
n this article, a method for making a variable artificial dielectric retard
er, akin to a Babinet-Soleil compensator, is investigated. Whilst the featu
re sizes are too small for this device to be practical at optical wavelengt
hs, the technique lends itself to quasi-optical instruments operating at te
rahertz wavelengths. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.