Photo-excited terahertz switch based on composite metamaterial structure

Abstract

A photo-excited terahertz switch based on the composite metamaterial structure was designed by integration of photoconductive silicon into the gaps of split-ring resonators. The conductivity of the silicon was tuned dynamically using laser excitation. We studied the transmission characteristics of the composite metamaterial structure for various silicon conductivities, and the results indicated that this type of composite metamaterial structure could be used as a resonance frequency tunable terahertz metamaterial switch. We also designed other new structures by filling different gaps with silicon, and realized terahertz metamaterial switches that resonant peak changed from one to two or three, which offer great flexible in application.