Efficiently manipulating the polarization states of electromagnetic waves is of great importance for communication, imaging, and sensing. In this paper, we aim to control the circular polarization states, e.g., left-hand, or right-hand, for the bidirectional radiated waves utilizing a pair of back-to-back quarter-wave plates, which are integrated within an ultrathin cavity. As an example, a bidirectional circularly polarized wave with the same helicity in forward and backward is generated based on numerical analyses, and proved by experiments in microwave region. The proposed ultrathin back-to-back quarter-wave plates cavity can be adopted to higher frequencies, e.g., terahertz and mid-infrared ranges, with lower metallic conductivity. The proposed method exhibits the advantages of compact dimension and low-cost implementation in engineering the bidirectional polarization states of electromagnetic waves.