Abstract-Electrothermally actuated microelectromechanical systems based omega-ring terahertz metamaterial with polarization dependent characteristics

Chong Pei Ho¹, Prakash Pitchappa¹, Yu-Sheng Lin¹, Chia-Yi Huang², Piotr Kropelnicki³ and Chengkuo Lee^1,a)

 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 3, Singapore 117576, Singapore
2 Department of Applied Physics, Tunghai University, No. 1727, Sec. 4, Taiwan Boulevard, Taichung 40704, Taiwan
3 Excelitas Technologies, 8 Tractor Road, Singapore 627969, Singapore
a) Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: elelc@nus.edu.sg.
Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 161104 (2014); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4871999

^{http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/104/16/10.1063/1.4871999}

We present the design, simulation, fabrication, and characterization of a continuously tunable Omega-ring terahertz metamaterial. The tunability of metamaterial is obtained by integratingmicroactuators into the metamaterial unit cell. Electrothermal actuation mechanism is used to provide higher tuning range, larger stroke, and enhanced repeatability. The maximum achieved tuning range for the resonant frequency is around 0.30 THz for the input power of 500 mW. This shows the potential of using electrothermally actuated microactuators based tunablemetamaterial design for application such as filters, absorbers, sensors, and spectral imagers.