Meander Line Nanoantenna Absorber for Subwavelength Terahertz Detection

Abstract

The detection of terahertz electromagnetic waves is crucial for emerging applications within this frequency band, such as spectroscopy, imaging, and communication. Extending the well-developed uncooled infrared focal plane array technology to terahertz frequency regime would be very attractive, but high absorption in the terahertz region with a subwavelength pixel is necessary. In this paper, we proposed a meander line nanoantenna (MLNA) absorber with a metal-insulator-metal structure for subwavelength terahertz absorption. 89% absorption is achieved at the wavelength of 155 μm with a 10 μm pitch size. The MLNA absorber is polarization insensitive and can maintain a high absorption when the incident angle is within 40°. We expect that the proposed MLNA absorber can be integrated with the small pixels of uncooled infrared focal plane array for terahertz detection.