Electromechanically Tunable Metasurface Transmission Waveplate at Terahertz Frequencies
Abstract
Dynamic polarization control of light is essential for numerous applications ranging from enhanced imaging to materials characterization and identification. We present a reconfigurable terahertz metasurface quarter-waveplate consisting of electromechanically actuated micro-cantilever arrays. Our anisotropic metasurface enables tunable polarization conversion cantilever actuation. Specifically, voltage-based actuation provides mode selective control of the resonance frequency, enabling real-time tuning of the polarization state of the transmitted light. The polarization tunable metasurface has been fabricated using surface micromachining and characterized using terahertz time domain spectroscopy. We observe a ~230 GHz cantilever actuated frequency shift of the resonance mode, sufficient to modulate the transmitted wave from pure circular polarization to linear polarization. Our CMOS-compatible tunable quarter-waveplate enriches the library of terahertz optical components, thereby facilitating practical applications of terahertz technologies.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1711.08003,
title = {Electromechanically Tunable Metasurface Transmission Waveplate at Terahertz Frequencies},
author = {Xiaoguang Zhao and Jacob Schalch and Jingdi Zhang and Huseyin R. Seren and Guangwu Duan and Richard D. Averitt and Xin Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.08003},
year = {2018}
}