Tunable terahertz metamaterials by means of piezoelectric MEMS actuators

Abstract

A programmable THz metamaterial, derived from the utilisation of a piezoelectric controlled microgripper as a split-ring resonator (SRR), is introduced in this paper. By applying the appropriate actuation voltage on the piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), a reconfigurable complex medium, offering enhanced bandwidth tunability, is attained. Several polarisation topologies are examined in order to clarify the interesting attributes of the metamaterial. Finally, thorough numerical investigations, via a robust finite element method (FEM), support the efficiency and reveal the advantages and applicability of the proposed device.