Abstract-Bi-material terahertz sensors using metamaterial structures

Fabio Alves, Dragoslav Grbovic, Brian Kearney, Nickolay V. Lavrik, and Gamani Karunasiri »View Author Affiliations

In this paper we report on the design, fabrication and characterization of terahertz (THz) bi-material sensors with metamaterial absorbers. MEMS fabrication-friendly SiO_x and Al are used to maximize the bimetallic effect and metamaterial absorption at 3.8 THz, the frequency of a quantum cascade laser illumination source. Sensors with different configurations were fabricated and the measured absorption is near 100% and responsivity is around 1.2 deg/μW, which agree well with finite element simulations. The results indicate the potential of using these detectors to fabricate focal plane arrays for real time THz imaging.
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