An electrical/thermal dual-controlled quad-functional terahertz metasurface absorber

Area of Science:

• Metamaterials and Nanophotonics
• Terahertz (THz) Technology
• Advanced Materials

Background:

• Graphene-based tunable terahertz (THz) absorbers are crucial for various applications.
• Improving absorber functionality for diverse scenarios remains a key research challenge.
• Metasurfaces offer promising platforms for advanced electromagnetic wave manipulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present an innovative quad-functional metasurface absorber (QMA) for the THz region.
• To enable switching between narrowband and broadband absorption modes.
• To achieve tunable absorption via dual electrical and thermal manipulation.

Main Methods:

• Electrical manipulation of graphene's chemical potential to switch absorption modes.
• Thermal manipulation of vanadium dioxide (VO2) phase transition for frequency tuning.
• Analysis of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) resonances and material phase transitions.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated switching between narrowband absorption mode (NAM) and broadband absorption mode (BAM) using electrical control.
• Achieved switching between low-frequency absorption mode (LAM) and high-frequency absorption mode (HAM) via thermal control.
• Confirmed polarization insensitivity and robust performance under large angular incidence for all modes.

Conclusions:

• The proposed QMA exhibits quad-functionality with tunable absorption characteristics.
• The dual electrical and thermal control mechanism provides versatile absorption capabilities.
• The QMA shows significant potential for applications in stealth, sensing, switching, and filtering.