Abstract-Electrically Reconfigurable Micromirror Array for Direct Spatial Light Modulation of Terahertz Waves over a Bandwidth Wider Than 1 THz

Jan Kappa, Dominik Sokoluk, Steffen Klingel, Corey Shemelya, Egbert Oesterschulze, Marco Rahm,

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39152-y

We report the design, fabrication and experimental investigation of a spectrally wide-band terahertz spatial light modulator (THz-SLM) based on an array of 768 actuatable mirrors with each having a length of 220 μm and a width of 100 μm. A mirror length of several hundred micrometers is required to reduce diffraction from individual mirrors at terahertz frequencies and to increase the pixel-to-pixel modulation contrast of the THz-SLM. By means of spatially selective actuation, we used the mirror array as reconfigurable grating to spatially modulate terahertz waves in a frequency range from 0.97 THz to 2.28 THz. Over the entire frequency band, the modulation contrast was higher than 50% with a peak modulation contrast of 87% at 1.38 THz. For spatial light modulation, almost arbitrary spatial pixel sizes can be realized by grouping of mirrors that are collectively switched as a pixel. For fabrication of the actuatable mirrors, we exploited the intrinsic residual stress in chrome-copper-chrome multi-layers that forces the mirrors into an upstanding position at an inclination angle of 35°. By applying a bias voltage of 37 V, the mirrors were pulled down to the substrate. By hysteretic switching, we were able to spatially modulate terahertz radiation at arbitrary pixel modulation patterns.

Abstract-Confined terahertz surface waves on meta-surfaces and Goubau lines

Sven Becker,  Tassilo Fip, Corey Shemelya,  Marco Rahm,

https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/10719/107191H/Confined-terahertz-surface-waves-on-meta-surfaces-and-Goubau-lines/10.1117/12.2320602.short

Integrated circuits revolutionized electronics long time ago and paved the way towards minimized microprocessors today. In analogy, plasmonics aims at the creation of highly integrated optical networks on a small chip that enable the implementation of ultra-small sensors or optical processors. In the terahertz frequency regime, we investigate the propagation of tightly bound pure surface waves on specifically designed meta-surfaces. While most presented metasurfaces on a thin film in the literature support waveguide mode propagation in the thin film substrate, whose evanescent electromagnetic fields form the surface waves at the waveguide boundaries, we observed pure surface waves that are not coupled to a waveguide mode in the thin film. Such meta-surfaces are particularly advantageous for use as surface sensors, since the surface waves carry most of their energy in the space between the surface and air and almost no energy in the thin film substrate. This is in strict contrast to most of the presented meta-surfaces in literature so far, which guide a significant part of unusable energy in the inaccessible region of the substrate. Furthermore, we study structures of Goubau lines and meta-surfaces that combine excellent spectrally broadband terahertz surface wave guiding with frequency-selective meta-surface areas and meta-surface sub-wavelength resonators on a chip. In detail, we investigate the coupling efficiency between Goubau lines and meta-surfaces.

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