Spectroscopic ellipsometry of thin film cyclic olefin copolymer for use in long-wave infrared metasurfaces

Abstract

Cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) is shown, via infrared variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (IR-VASE), to have low absorption along with low dispersion in the long-wave infrared (LWIR) band. The material is demonstrated as the dielectric standoff layer in an LWIR metasurface design consisting of metallic patches and a ground plane, which is fabricated via standard lithographic processes. The resultant metasurface is observed to display strong resonant behavior near 10 µm, without the absorption features typically observed in similar designs using previously studied polymeric materials. COC should be considered for use in future metasurface work where researchers wish to study the physics of LWIR metasurface behavior without the complications caused by absorptive loss in the dielectric layer(s).