Engineering heavily doped silicon for broadband absorber in the terahertz regime

Highly efficient absorber is of particular importance in terahertz regime as naturally occurring materials with frequency-selective absorption in this frequency band is difficult to find. Here we present the design and characterization of a broadband terahertz absorber based on heavily Boron-doped silicon (0.7676 Ω cm) grating. It is numerically demonstrated by utilizing both the zero- and first order diffraction in the doped silicon wafer, relative absorption bandwidth larger than 100% can be achieved. Furthermore, the design can be easily extended to higher frequencies as the optical property of doped silicon is tunable through changing the doping concentration.