A fully functionalized metamaterial perfect absorber with simple design and implementation

• Published in: Scientific reports 2016-10, Vol.6 (1), p.36244-36244, Article 36244
• Main Authors: Fu, Sze Ming, Zhong, Yan Kai, Tu, Ming Hsiang, Chen, Bo Ruei, Lin, Albert
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 132/122; 639/4077/4072/4062; 639/624/399/1015; Design; Etching; Filters; Humanities and Social Sciences; Integration; multidisciplinary; Science; Silica; Silicon; Silicon nitride; Simulation
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep36244

Broadband perfect metamaterial absorbers have been drawing significant attention in recent years. A close-to-unity absorption over a broad spectral range is established and this facilitates many photonic applications. A more challenging goal is to construct a broadband absorber with a tailored spectral absorption. The spectral absorption control and spectral shaping are very critical in many applications, such as thermal-photovoltaic, thermal emitters, spectrum imaging system, biomedical and extraterrestrial sensing, and refractive index sensor. In this work, one-dimensional (1D) planar stacking structure is designed to achieve the ultimate goal of a functionalized absorber with a fully tailorable spectral absorption. The lithography and etching process are totally eliminated in this proposed structure, and the fabrication is fully compatible with the regular silicon IC processing. By using ~2 nm ultra-thin metallic layers with a 10-pair (10X) SiO 2 /Si 3 N 4 integrated dielectric filter, we can achieve decent spectral response shaping. The planar configuration of the ultra-thin-metal metamaterial perfect absorber (MPA) is the key to the easy design/integration of the dielectric filters on top of the MPA. Specifically, band-rejected, high-pass, low-pass and band-pass structure are constructed successfully. Finally, experimental evidence to support our simulation result is also provided, which proves the feasibility of our proposal.