Thermally reconfigurable extraordinary terahertz transmission using vanadium dioxide

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a numerically modeled reconfigurable terahertz transmission device using vanadium dioxide, enabling dynamic control of transmission peaks for potential terahertz modulators and filters.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid metasurface design with VO2 that allows switching and tuning of terahertz transmission peaks through phase change control.

Findings

Transmission peak shifts from 1.02 to 0.82 THz with VO2 phase change

Transmission peak shifts from 0.71 to 0.77 THz with VO2 phase change

Transmission level and resonance frequency are tunable via partial phase transition

Abstract

We numerically demonstrate a reconfigurable extraordinary terahertz transmission based on a phase-change material of vanadium dioxide (VO2). The proposed hybrid metasurface is composed of an array of subwavelength apertures perforated on a gold film. The holes are partially filled with annular VO2 and gold disks to control the effective aperture area and the modes inside the aperture. Switching between the insulator and the metallic phase of VO2 provides a convenient way to shift the transmission window. We present two designs offering redshift or blueshift of the extraordinary terahertz transmission. Upon phase transition from the insulator to the metallic phase, in the first design, the transmission peak redshifts from 1.02 to 0.82 THz while in the second design the transmission peak blueshifts from 0.71 to 0.77 THz. Furthermore, the transmission level and resonance frequency can be modulated by controlling the partial phase transition of the VO2. The potential applications for the proposed structures are terahertz modulators and reconfigurable filters.