Flexible Terahertz Metamaterials Absorber based on VO2

Abstract

Terahertz (THz) metamaterials have attracted great attention due to their widely application potential in smart THz devices; however, most of them are fabricated on rigid substrate and thus limit the exploration of flexible THz electronics. In this paper, a flexible THz metamaterial absorber (MMA) incorporated with phase change material vanadium dioxide (VO2) is proposed. The simulation results indicate that two absorption peaks at around 0.24 THz (marked as A) and 0.46 THz (marked as B) can be observed by designing a I-shaped metamaterial combined with split ring structure. The strong absorption over 92% at 0.24 THz is bending-insensitive, but the absorption at 0.46 THz is bending-sensitive, across the bending angle in the range of 0–50 degrees. Moreover, dynamic modulation of the absorption can be achieved across the insulator-metal phase transition of VO2. Particularly, the absorption of the A-peak can be tuned from 99.4% to 46.9%, while the absorption of the B-peak can be tuned from 39.6% to 99.3%. This work would provide significance for the design of flexible THz smart devices.