Graphene-based reconfigurable terahertz plasmonics and metamaterials

This work discusses and compares two proposed practical approaches for realizing graphene-based reconfigurable terahertz metamaterials, namely: graphene-only plasmonic structures, and graphene/metal hybrid structures. From rigorous theoretical analysis, full-wave electromagnetic numerical simulations, as well as supporting experiments, several reconfigurable structures are analyzed and compared in terms of their: (i) Quality-factor, (ii) Extinction-ratio, (iii) Unit-cell dimensions, and (iv) Resonance frequency tunability-range. From this analysis it is observed that at terahertz frequencies, although typically possessing larger unit-cell dimensions and being limited by a restricted resonance-frequency tunability-range, reconfigurable metamaterials based on graphene/metal hybrid structures can provide much larger quality-factors, extinction levels, and, when reconfigured, smaller extinction-level degradation than graphene-only plasmonic structures. As a result, when analyzed in the context of reconfigurable terahertz metamaterials, graphene might result attractive as a reconfigurable media providing tunability to otherwise passive metallic structures rather than as a reconfigurable plasmonic material per-se. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.