High-performance terahertz wave absorbers made of silicon-based metamaterials

Electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbers with high efficiency in different frequency bands have been extensively investigated for various applications. In this paper, we propose an ultra-broadband and polarization-insensitive terahertz metamaterial absorber based on a patterned lossy silicon substrate. Experimentally, a large absorption efficiency more than 95% in a frequency range of 0.9-2.5 THz was obtained up to a wave incident angle as large as 70 degrees. Much broader absorption bandwidth and excellent oblique incidence absorption performance are numerically demonstrated. The underlying mechanisms due to the combination of a waveguide cavity mode and impedance-matched diffraction are analyzed in terms of the field patterns and the scattering features. The monolithic THz absorber proposed here may find important applications in EM energy harvesting systems such as THz barometer or biosensor. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.