Dynamically electrical/thermal-tunable perfect absorber for a high-performance terahertz modulation

Tunable VO2 cavity enables multispectral manipulation from visible to microwave frequencies

Optical materials capable of dynamically manipulating electromagnetic waves are an emerging field in memories, optical modulators, and thermal management. Recently, their multispectral design preliminarily attracts much attention, aiming to enhance their efficiency and integration of functionalities. However, the multispectral manipulation based on these materials is challenging due to their ubiquitous wavelength dependence restricting their capacity to narrow wavelengths. In this article, we cascade multiple tunable optical cavities with selective-transparent layers, enabling a universal approach to overcoming wavelength dependence and establishing a multispectral platform with highly integrated functions. Based on it, we demonstrate the multispectral (ranging from 400 nm to 3 cm), fast response speed (0.9 s), and reversible manipulation based on a typical phase change material, vanadium dioxide. Our platform involves tandem VO2-based Fabry-Pérot (F-P) cavities enabling the customization of optical responses at target bands independently. It can achieve broadband color-changing capacity in the visible region (a shift of ~60 nm in resonant wavelength) and is capable of freely switching between three typical optical models (transmittance, reflectance, and absorptance) in the infrared to microwave regions with drastic amplitude tunability exceeding 0.7. This work represents a state-of-art advance in multispectral optics and material science, providing a critical approach for expanding the multispectral manipulation ability of optical systems.

Grid composite meta-surface absorber with thermal isolation structure for terahertz detection

This paper specifically focuses on the absorber, the critical component responsible for the detector's response performance. The meta-surface absorber combines two resonant structures and achieves over 80% absorptance around 210 GHz, resulting in a broad operating frequency range. FR-4 is selected as the dielectric layer to be compatible with standard printed circuit board (PCB) technology, which reduces the overall fabrication time and cost. The absorbing unit and array layout are symmetrically designed, providing stable absorptance performance even under incident waves of different polarization angles. The polarization-insensitive absorptance characteristic further enhances the compatibility between the absorber and the detector in the application scenario. Furthermore, the thermal insulation performance of the absorber is ensured by introducing thermal insulation gaps. After completing fabrication through PCB technology, testing revealed that the absorber maintained excellent absorptance performance within its primary operating frequency range. This performance consistency closely matched the simulation results.

Switchable Broadband Terahertz Absorbers Based on Conducting Polymer-Cellulose Aerogels

Terahertz (THz) technologies provide opportunities ranging from calibration targets for satellites and telescopes to communication devices and biomedical imaging systems. A main component will be broadband THz absorbers with switchability. However, optically switchable materials in THz are scarce and their modulation is mostly available at narrow bandwidths. Realizing materials with large and broadband modulation in absorption or transmission forms a critical challenge. This study demonstrates that conducting polymer-cellulose aerogels can provide modulation of broadband THz light with large modulation range from ≈ 13% to 91% absolute transmission, while maintaining specular reflection loss < -30 dB. The exceptional THz modulation is associated with the anomalous optical conductivity peak of conducting polymers, which enhances the absorption in its oxidized state. The study also demonstrates the possibility to reduce the surface hydrophilicity by simple chemical modifications, and shows that broadband absorption of the aerogels at optical frequencies enables de-frosting by solar-induced heating. These low-cost, aqueous solution-processable, sustainable, and bio-friendly aerogels may find use in next-generation intelligent THz devices.

Penrose tiling-inspired graphene-covered multiband terahertz metamaterial absorbers

In this work, we propose two different graphene-covered nanostructured metamaterial absorbers inspired by Penrose tiling. These absorbers allow spectrally tunable absorption within the terahertz spectrum corresponding to 0.2-20 THz. We have conducted finite-difference time-domain analyses to determine the tunability of these metamaterial absorbers. The proposed structures, Penrose models 1 and 2, perform differently from each other due to their design characteristics. Penrose model 2 reaches a perfect absorption at 8.58 THz. In addition, the relative absorption bandwidth calculated at full-wave at half-maximum in Penrose model 2 varies between 5.2% and 9.4%, which characterizes the metamaterial absorber as a wideband absorber. Also, we can observe that as we increase the Fermi level of graphene from 0.1 to 1 eV, the absorption bandwidth and relative absorption bandwidth both increase. Our findings show the high tunability of both models through varying graphene's Fermi level, the graphene's thickness, the substrate's refractive index, and the proposed structures' polarization. We can further observe multiple tunable absorption profiles that may find applications in designer infrared absorbers, optoelectronic devices, and THz sensors.

THz broadband and dual-channel perfect absorbers based on patterned graphene and vanadium dioxide metamaterials

This paper proposes a novel and perfect absorber based on patterned graphene and vanadium dioxide hybrid metamaterial, which can not only achieve wide-band perfect absorption and dual-channel absorption in the terahertz band, but also realize their conversion by adjusting the temperature to control the metallic or insulating phase of VO₂. Firstly, the absorption spectrum of the proposed structure is analyzed without graphene, where the absorption can reach as high as 100% at one frequency point (f = 5.956 THz) when VO₂ is in the metal phase. What merits attention is that the addition of graphene above the structure enhances the almost 100% absorption from one frequency point (f = 5.956 THz) to a wide frequency band, in which the broadband width records 1.683 THz. Secondly, when VO₂ is the insulating phase, the absorption of the metamaterial structure with graphene outperforms better, and two high absorption peaks are formed, logging 100% and 90.7% at f₃ = 5.545 THz and f₄ = 7.684 THz, respectively. Lastly, the adjustment of the Fermi level of graphene from 0.8 eV to 1.1 eV incurs an obvious blueshift of the absorption spectra, where an asynchronous optical switch can be achieved at fK₁ = 5.782 THz and fK₂ = 6.898 THz. Besides, the absorber exhibits polarization sensitivity at f₃ = 5.545 THz, and polarization insensitivity at f₄ = 7.684 THz with the shift in the polarization angle of incident light from 0° to 90°. Accordingly, this paper gives insights into the new method that increases the high absorption width, as well as the great potential in the multifunctional modulator.