Vanadium dioxide based broadband THz metamaterial absorbers with high tunability: simulation study

Abstract

With their unprecedented flexibility in manipulating electromagnetic waves, metamaterials provide a pathway to structural materials that can fill the so-called “THz gap”. It has been reported that vanadium dioxide (VO2) experiences a three orders of magnitude increase in THz electrical conductivity when it undergoes an insulator-to-metal transition. Here, we propose a VO2 based THz metamaterial absorber exhibiting broadband absorptivity that arises from the multiple resonances supported by a delicately balanced doubly periodic array of VO2 structures and numerically demonstrate that the corresponding absorption behavior is highly dependent on the VO2’s THz electrical properties. Considering the phase transition induced dramatic change in VO2’s material property, the proposed metamaterial absorbers have the potential for strong modulation and switching of broadband THz radiation. © 2019 Optical Society of America.