Simple design of novel triple-band terahertz metamaterial absorber for sensing application

For a general metamaterial absorber, single patterned structure has only one resonance absorption peak. Therefore, a multi-band perfect absorber can be obtained by employing multiple differentsized metallic patterns. However, this kind of design strategy removes the novelty of their resonance mechanism and is also quite troublesome in regard to fabrication. Here, a novel and simple design of a triple-band terahertz absorber formed by only an asymmetric cross is presented. Theoretical results show that the proposed structure has three distinct absorption bands whose peaks are all over 99%. The first two absorption peaks are due to the magnetic resonances of the different sections of the asymmetric cross, and the third peak is based on the surface response of the structure. Moreover, sensing performance of the absorber is investigated in terms of the surrounding index. It is found that the figure of merit and quality factor of the third peak is much larger than those of the first two peaks, which reveals the proposed absorber's, in particular the third resonance mode of the metamaterial, potential applications in sensing and detection.