Triple-Band and Ultra-Broadband Switchable Terahertz Meta-Material Absorbers Based on the Hybrid Structures of Vanadium Dioxide and Metallic Patterned Resonators

Yuke Zou; Hongyan Lin; Gaowen Tian; Haiquan Zhou; Huaxin Zhu; Han Xiong; Ben-Xin Wang

doi:10.3390/ma16134719

Triple-Band and Ultra-Broadband Switchable Terahertz Meta-Material Absorbers Based on the Hybrid Structures of Vanadium Dioxide and Metallic Patterned Resonators

Materials (Basel). 2023 Jun 29;16(13):4719. doi: 10.3390/ma16134719.

Authors

Yuke Zou¹, Hongyan Lin¹, Gaowen Tian¹, Haiquan Zhou², Huaxin Zhu¹, Han Xiong³, Ben-Xin Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Science, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China.
² Zhejiang Beyondsun Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Huzhou 313008, China.
³ School of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China.

Abstract

A bifunctional terahertz meta-material absorber with three layers is designed. The surface of the bifunctional meta-material absorber is a periodically patterned array composed of hybrid structures of vanadium dioxide (VO₂) and metallic resonators; the middle layer is a nondestructive TOPAS film, and the bottom layer is a continuous metallic plane. Utilizing the phase-transition property of VO₂, the responses of the meta-material absorber could be dynamically switched between triple-band absorption and ultra-broadband absorption. When VO₂ is in the metallic state, an ultra-broadband absorption covering the bandwidth of 6.62 THz is achieved over the range from 4.71 THz to 11.33 THz. When VO₂ is in the di-electric state, three absorption peaks resonated at 10.57 THz, 12.68 THz, and 13.91 THz. The physical mechanisms of the bifunctional meta-material absorber were explored by analyzing their near-field distributions. The effects of varying structural parameters on triple-band and ultra-broadband absorption were investigated. It is revealed that by optimizing the structure parameters, the number of absorption peaks could be increased for a certain sacrifice of absorption bandwidth. FDTD Solutions and CST Microwave Studio were used to simulate the data of the absorber, and similar results were obtained.

Keywords: bifunctional absorber; terahertz meta-materials; triple-band and ultra-broadband absorption; vanadium dioxide.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Training Programs of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates, grant number 2022094z, Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province (2023C04015); Key Research and Development Program of Huzhou (2022ZD2029).