Graphene-based tunable metamaterial terahertz filters

We propose and describe a micro-machined tunable metamaterial terahertz filter based on graphene. The device structure consists of periodic metallic rings with several gaps where tunable graphene stripes are located. We demonstrate that the filter resonance frequency can be adjusted easily by varying the conductivity of graphene and implement this by changing the number of stacked graphene layers. Moreover, the proposed design is scalable, in the sense that the resonance frequency tuning can be controlled by scaling the inner and outer radius of the metal rings. Using numerical simulations and terahertz time-domain spectroscopy measurements of the fabricated samples, we show that the resonance frequency of the structure can be altered by 40% (i.e., from similar to 0.2 THz to similar to 0.12 THz) by simply tuning the conductivity of graphene. Importantly, the active area of the device is << 0.1% of the total unit cell area, which can boost the device speed upon electrostatic actuation. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.