Hybrid metasurface for ultra-broadband terahertz modulation
Abstract
We demonstrate an ultra-broadband free-space terahertz modulator based on a semiconductor-integrated metasurface. The modulator is made of a planar array of metal cut-wires on a silicon-on-sapphire substrate, where the silicon layer functions as photoconductive switches. Without external excitation, the cut-wire array exhibits a Lorentzian resonant response with a transmission passband spanning dc up to the fundamental dipole resonance above 2 THz. Under photoexcitation with 1.55 eV near-infrared light, the silicon regions in the cut-wire gaps become highly conductive, causing a transition of the resonant metasurface to a wire grating with a Drude response. In effect, the low-frequency passband below 2 THz evolves into a stopband for the incident terahertz waves. Experimental validations confirm a bandwidth of at least 100%, spanning 0.5 to 1.5 THz with -10 dB modulation depth. This modulation depth is far superior to -5 dB achievable from a plain silicon-on-sapphire substrate with effectively 25 times higher pumping energy. The proposed concept of ultra-broadband metasurface modulator can be readily extended to electrically controlled terahertz wave modulation.
- Authors:
-
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Univ. of Adelaide (Australia)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1236572
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1224275
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-14-27721
Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951; APPLAB
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 105; Journal Issue: 18; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Citation Formats
Heyes, Jane E., Withayachumnankul, Withawat, Grady, Nathaniel K., Chowdhury, Dibakar Roy, Azad, Abul K., and Chen, Hou-Tong. Hybrid metasurface for ultra-broadband terahertz modulation. United States: N. p., 2014.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.4901050.
Heyes, Jane E., Withayachumnankul, Withawat, Grady, Nathaniel K., Chowdhury, Dibakar Roy, Azad, Abul K., & Chen, Hou-Tong. Hybrid metasurface for ultra-broadband terahertz modulation. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4901050
Heyes, Jane E., Withayachumnankul, Withawat, Grady, Nathaniel K., Chowdhury, Dibakar Roy, Azad, Abul K., and Chen, Hou-Tong. Wed .
"Hybrid metasurface for ultra-broadband terahertz modulation". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4901050. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1236572.
@article{osti_1236572,
title = {Hybrid metasurface for ultra-broadband terahertz modulation},
author = {Heyes, Jane E. and Withayachumnankul, Withawat and Grady, Nathaniel K. and Chowdhury, Dibakar Roy and Azad, Abul K. and Chen, Hou-Tong},
abstractNote = {We demonstrate an ultra-broadband free-space terahertz modulator based on a semiconductor-integrated metasurface. The modulator is made of a planar array of metal cut-wires on a silicon-on-sapphire substrate, where the silicon layer functions as photoconductive switches. Without external excitation, the cut-wire array exhibits a Lorentzian resonant response with a transmission passband spanning dc up to the fundamental dipole resonance above 2 THz. Under photoexcitation with 1.55 eV near-infrared light, the silicon regions in the cut-wire gaps become highly conductive, causing a transition of the resonant metasurface to a wire grating with a Drude response. In effect, the low-frequency passband below 2 THz evolves into a stopband for the incident terahertz waves. Experimental validations confirm a bandwidth of at least 100%, spanning 0.5 to 1.5 THz with -10 dB modulation depth. This modulation depth is far superior to -5 dB achievable from a plain silicon-on-sapphire substrate with effectively 25 times higher pumping energy. The proposed concept of ultra-broadband metasurface modulator can be readily extended to electrically controlled terahertz wave modulation.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4901050},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 18,
volume = 105,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Nov 05 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Wed Nov 05 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
Manipulation of terahertz radiation using metamaterials
journal, May 2011
- Chen, H. -T.; O'Hara, J. F.; Azad, A. K.
- Laser & Photonics Reviews, Vol. 5, Issue 4
Metamaterial Electromagnetic Wave Absorbers
journal, May 2012
- Watts, Claire M.; Liu, Xianliang; Padilla, Willie J.
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 24, Issue 23, p. OP98-OP120
Plasmonic Resonance toward Terahertz Perfect Absorbers
journal, June 2014
- Withayachumnankul, Withawat; Shah, Charan Manish; Fumeaux, Christophe
- ACS Photonics, Vol. 1, Issue 7
Terahertz Metamaterials for Linear Polarization Conversion and Anomalous Refraction
journal, May 2013
- Grady, N. K.; Heyes, J. E.; Chowdhury, D. R.
- Science, Vol. 340, Issue 6138
Terahertz reflectarray as a polarizing beam splitter
journal, January 2014
- Niu, Tiaoming; Withayachumnankul, Withawat; Upadhyay, Aditi
- Optics Express, Vol. 22, Issue 13
Highly flexible broadband terahertz metamaterial quarter-wave plate: Highly flexible broadband terahertz metamaterial quarter-wave plate
journal, March 2014
- Cong, Longqing; Xu, Ningning; Gu, Jianqiang
- Laser & Photonics Reviews, Vol. 8, Issue 4
Terahertz beam focusing based on plasmonic waveguide scattering
journal, October 2012
- Monnai, Yasuaki; Altmann, Kristian; Jansen, Christian
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 15
Ultrathin Terahertz Planar Elements
journal, February 2013
- Hu, Dan; Wang, Xinke; Feng, Shengfei
- Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 2
THz Wave Modulators: A Brief Review on Different Modulation Techniques
journal, November 2012
- Rahm, Marco; Li, Jiu-Sheng; Padilla, Willie J.
- Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, Vol. 34, Issue 1
Room-temperature operation of an electrically driven terahertz modulator
journal, May 2004
- Kleine-Ostmann, T.; Dawson, P.; Pierz, K.
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 84, Issue 18
Active terahertz metamaterial devices
journal, November 2006
- Chen, Hou-Tong; Padilla, Willie J.; Zide, Joshua M. O.
- Nature, Vol. 444, Issue 7119, p. 597-600
Ultrafast optical switching of terahertz metamaterials fabricated on ErAs/GaAs nanoisland superlattices
journal, January 2007
- Chen, Hou-Tong; Padilla, Willie J.; Zide, Joshua M. O.
- Optics Letters, Vol. 32, Issue 12
Hybrid metamaterials enable fast electrical modulation of freely propagating terahertz waves
journal, September 2008
- Chen, Hou-Tong; Palit, Sabarni; Tyler, Talmage
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 93, Issue 9
High-Contrast Terahertz Wave Modulation by Gated Graphene Enhanced by Extraordinary Transmission through Ring Apertures
journal, February 2014
- Gao, Weilu; Shu, Jie; Reichel, Kimberly
- Nano Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 3
A metamaterial solid-state terahertz phase modulator
journal, February 2009
- Chen, Hou-Tong; Padilla, Willie J.; Cich, Michael J.
- Nature Photonics, Vol. 3, Issue 3, p. 148-151
An electrically driven terahertz metamaterial diffractive modulator with more than 20 dB of dynamic range
journal, March 2014
- Karl, N.; Reichel, K.; Chen, H. -T.
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 9
A spatial light modulator for terahertz beams
journal, May 2009
- Chan, Wai Lam; Chen, Hou-Tong; Taylor, Antoinette J.
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 94, Issue 21
Polarization-independent active metamaterial for high-frequency terahertz modulation
journal, January 2009
- Paul, Oliver; Imhof, Christian; Lägel, Bert
- Optics Express, Vol. 17, Issue 2
High speed terahertz modulation from metamaterials with embedded high electron mobility transistors
journal, January 2011
- Shrekenhamer, David; Rout, Saroj; Strikwerda, Andrew C.
- Optics Express, Vol. 19, Issue 10
Liquid Crystal Metamaterial Absorber Spatial Light Modulator for THz Applications
journal, January 2014
- Savo, Salvatore; Shrekenhamer, David; Padilla, Willie J.
- Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 3
Switchable Scattering Meta-Surfaces for Broadband Terahertz Modulation
journal, July 2014
- Unlu, M.; Hashemi, M. R.; Berry, C. W.
- Scientific Reports, Vol. 4, Issue 1
Spectrally Wide-Band Terahertz Wave Modulator Based on Optically Tuned Graphene
journal, September 2012
- Weis, Peter; Garcia-Pomar, Juan L.; Höh, Michael
- ACS Nano, Vol. 6, Issue 10
Broadband graphene terahertz modulators enabled by intraband transitions
journal, January 2012
- Sensale-Rodriguez, Berardi; Yan, Rusen; Kelly, Michelle M.
- Nature Communications, Vol. 3, Issue 1
Terahertz imaging employing graphene modulator arrays
journal, January 2013
- Sensale-Rodriguez, Berardi; Rafique, Subrina; Yan, Rusen
- Optics Express, Vol. 21, Issue 2
Dynamical Electric and Magnetic Metamaterial Response at Terahertz Frequencies
journal, March 2006
- Padilla, W. J.; Taylor, A. J.; Highstrete, C.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 10
Experimental demonstration of frequency-agile terahertz metamaterials
journal, April 2008
- Chen, Hou-Tong; O'Hara, John F.; Azad, Abul K.
- Nature Photonics, Vol. 2, Issue 5
A metal-to-insulator transition in cut-wire-grid metamaterials in the terahertz region
journal, January 2010
- Takano, Keisuke; Shibuya, Kyoji; Akiyama, Koichi
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 107, Issue 2
Extremely Low Frequency Plasmons in Metallic Mesostructures
journal, June 1996
- Pendry, J. B.; Holden, A. J.; Stewart, W. J.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 76, Issue 25, p. 4773-4776
Ultrafast manipulation of near field coupling between bright and dark modes in terahertz metamaterial
journal, January 2013
- Roy Chowdhury, Dibakar; Singh, Ranjan; Taylor, Antoinette J.
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 1
Works referencing / citing this record:
NIR Light Driven Terahertz Wave Modulator with a Large Modulation Depth Based on a Silicon‐PEDOT:PSS‐Perovskite Hybrid System
journal, April 2020
- Lai, Weien; Ge, Chengda; Yuan, Hao
- Advanced Materials Technologies, Vol. 5, Issue 4
Graphene Based Terahertz Light Modulator in Total Internal Reflection Geometry
journal, December 2016
- Liu, Xudong; Chen, Zefeng; Parrott, Edward P. J.
- Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 3
Dielectrics for Terahertz Metasurfaces: Material Selection and Fabrication Techniques
journal, September 2019
- Ako, Rajour Tanyi; Upadhyay, Aditi; Withayachumnankul, Withawat
- Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 3
High‐efficiency cross and linear‐to‐circular polarization converters based on novel frequency selective surfaces
journal, June 2019
- Wang, Zhenglong; Ge, Yuehe; Lin, Chengxiu
- Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 61, Issue 10
Multilayer Graphene Broadband Terahertz Modulators with Flexible Substrate
journal, March 2018
- Kaya, Emine; Kakenov, Nurbek; Altan, Hakan
- Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, Vol. 39, Issue 5
A review of metasurfaces: physics and applications
journal, June 2016
- Chen, Hou-Tong; Taylor, Antoinette J.; Yu, Nanfang
- Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 79, Issue 7
Photo-induced high modulation depth terahertz modulator based on VO x –Si–VO x hybrid structure
journal, February 2019
- Hu, Fangrong; Wang, Hong; Li, Tong
- Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 52, Issue 17
Switchable broadband terahertz absorber/reflector enabled by hybrid graphene-gold metasurface
journal, January 2017
- Zhao, Yu Tong; Wu, Bian; Huang, Bei Ju
- Optics Express, Vol. 25, Issue 7
A review of metasurfaces: physics and applications
text, January 2016
- Chen, Hou-Tong; Taylor, Antoinette J.; Yu, Nanfang
- arXiv