We describe the electronic control of extraordinary terahertz transmission through subwavelength metal hole arrays fabricated on doped semiconductor substrates. The hybrid metal-semiconductor forms a Schottky diode structure, where the active depletion region modifies the substrate conductivity in real-time by applying an external voltage bias. This enables effective control of the resonance enhanced terahertz transmission. Our proof of principle device achieves an intensity modulation depth of 52% by changing the voltage bias between 0 and 16 volts. Further optimization may result in improvement of device performance and practical applications. This approach can be also translated to the other optical frequency ranges.
Extraordinary transmission through subwavelength metallic apertures has been extensively studied and demonstrated. At resonance, the coupling between surface plasmons on both surfaces of the metallic film tunnels the photon from the one side to the other through the subwavelength aperture with small transmission efficiency based on the metals dielectric parameters and aperture geometrical dimensions. Here, we report a completely different form of extraordinary transmission, where the two subwavelength complementary apertures when coupled with an optical cavity induce about 100% extraordinary t…
We present an intuitive analytical model for extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) through corrugated metallic films. In the framework of this model, EOT emerges from standing wave resonances of the different diffraction orders, and is an inherent property of periodic structures, which does not require specific polarization dependent properties such as surface plasmons. The model correctly predicts the conditions for the EOT resonances in various geometrical configurations, in both TE and TM polarizations,and in the subwavelength and non-subwavelength spectral regimes, using the same underl…
Quadrate hole array is explored to study the influence of unsymmetrical periodicity on extraordinary optical transmission through periodic arrays of subwavelength holes. It is found that the transmission efficiency of light and the ratio between transmission efficiencies of horizontal and vertical polarized light can be continuously tuned by rotating the quadrate hole array. We can calculate out the transmission spectra (including the heights and locations of peaks) for any rotation angle $θ$ with a simple theoretical model.
Inspired by the capability of structured illumination microscopy in subwavelength imaging, many researchers devoted themselves to investigating this methodology. However, due to the free propagating feature of the traditional structured illumination fields, the resolution can be only improved up to double times compared with the diffractied limited microscopy. Besides, most of the previous studies, relying on incoherent illumination sources, are restricted to fluorescent samples. In this work, a subwavelength nonfluorescent imaging method is proposed based on the terahertz traveling wave and p…
The enhanced light transmission through an array of subwavelength holes surrounded by Bragg mirrors is studied, showing that the mirrors act to confine the surface plasmons associated with the Extraordinary Optical Transmission effect, forming a surface resonant cavity. The overall effect is increased light transmission intensity by more than a factor of three beyond the already enhanced transmission, independent of whether the Bragg mirrors are on the input or the output side of the incident light. The geometry of the Bragg mirror structures controls the enhancement, and can even reduce the t…
Transmission of a normally incident plane wave through a metasurface with bicontrollable subwavelength scattering elements was simulated using a commercial software. Some pixels comprising the $H-shaped scattering elements were made of a magnetostatically controllable material whereas the remaining pixels were made of a thermally controllable material, the metasurface designed to operate in the terahertz spectral regime. The co-polarized transmission coefficients were found to exhibit stopbands that shift when either a magnetostatic field is applied or the temperature is increased or both. Dep…
We present a metamaterial-based terahertz (THz) sensor for thickness measurements of subwavelength-thin materials and refractometry of liquids and liquid mixtures. The sensor operates in reflection geometry and exploits the frequency shift of a sharp Fano resonance minimum in the presence of dielectric materials. We obtained a minimum thickness resolution of 12.5 nm (1/16000 times the wavelength of the THz radiation) and a refractive index sensitivity of 0.43 THz per refractive index unit. We support the experimental results by an analytical model that describes the dependence of the resonance…
We report extensive enhancement in the refractive index of artificially designed metamaterials by exploiting the deep subwavelength coupling in a free-standing, thin-film metal-dielectric-metal checkboard structure. A record high refractive index of 77.02+43.22i is obtained at terahertz frequencies. The detailed investigations reveal that the enhancement of the effective refractive index of the structure via deep subwavelength coupling in a bilayer design is governed by a power law, which is an effective and simpler approach to design high index metamaterial. The approach relies on deep subwav…
Transmission through a subwavelength terahertz fiber, which is positioned in parallel to a frequency selective surface, is studied using several finite element tools. Both the band diagram technique and the port-based scattering matrix technique are used to explain the nature of various resonances in the fiber transmission spectrum. First, we observe that spectral positions of most of the transmission peaks in the port-based simulation can be related to the positions of Van Hove singularities in the band diagram of a corresponding infinite periodic system. Moreover, spectral shape of most of t…
We designed a cut-wire-pair metasurface that works as a transparent terahertz half-wave plate, by matching the electric and magnetic resonances of the structure. Due to the impedance matching nature of the resonances, a large transmission phase shift between the orthogonal polarizations was achieved, while permitting a high transmission. The electric and magnetic responses of the proposed structure were confirmed by evaluating the electric admittance and magnetic impedance. The structure was fabricated on a flexible film and its helicity-conversion function in the terahertz frequency range was…
In this work we report two designs of subwavelength fibers packaged for practical terahertz wave guiding. We describe fabrication, modeling and characterization of microstructured polymer fibers featuring a subwavelength-size core suspended in the middle of a large porous outer cladding. This design allows convenient handling of the subwavelength fibers without distorting their modal profile. Additionally, the air-tight porous cladding serves as a natural enclosure for the fiber core, thus avoiding the need for a bulky external enclosure for humidity-purged atmosphere. Fibers of 5 mm and 3 mm …
A new approach for the spatial and temporal modulation of electromagnetic fields at terahertz frequencies is presented. The waveguiding elements are based on plasmonic and metamaterial notions and consist of an easy-to-manufacture periodic chain of metallic box-shaped elements protruding out of a metallic surface. It is shown that the dispersion relation of the corresponding electromagnetic modes is rather insensitive to the waveguide width, preserving tight confinement and reasonable absorption loss even when the waveguide transverse dimensions are well in the subwavelength regime. This prope…
Terahertz spectral range (frequencies of 0.1-1 THz) has recently emerged as the next frontier for non-destructive imaging, industrial sensing and ultra-fast wireless communications. Here, we review several classes of materials such as simple metals, semiconductors, high-k dielectrics, polar materials, zero gap materials, as well as structured materials that can support strongly localised electromagnetic modes at material interfaces in the Terahertz spectral range. We present the basic theory of surface waves, detail the requirement of strong modal confinement and low loss for the surface waves…
Plasmonic bowtie antennas made of doped silicon can operate as plasmonic resonators at terahertz (THz) frequencies and provide large field enhancement close to their gap. We demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically that the field confinement close to the surface of the antenna enables the detection of ultrathin (100 nm) inorganic films, about 3750 times thinner than the free space wavelength. Based on model calculations, we conclude that the detection sensitivity and its variation with the thickness of the deposited layer are related to both the decay of the local THz field profile ar…
Subwavelength-slotted parallel plate waveguides exhibit a localized electromagnetic resonance bound to the slits at a frequency slightly below the transverse electric cutoff [R. Merlin, Phys. Rev. X 2, 031015 (2012)]. The resonance is long-lived and, as opposed to the vanishingly small transmission shown by a single sub-wavelength aperture, it gives perfect transmission for perfectly-conducting plates. We show that the aperture-supported resonances of a pair of slotted copper plates have long lifetimes at THz frequencies. Finite element method calculations show that these bound resonances can …
The recent development of the terahertz waveguide makes it an excellent platform for integrating many intriguing functionalities, which offers tremendous potential to build compact and robust terahertz systems. In the context of next-generation high-speed communication links at the terahertz band, engineering the dispersion and birefringence of terahertz waves is essential. Here, we experimentally demonstrate subwavelength birefringent waveguide gratings based on the low-loss cyclic olefin copolymer exploiting micro-machining fabrication techniques. Asymmetric cross-section and periodic-struct…
In this work, we present an in-depth experimental and numerical study of the short-range THz communications links that use subwavelength dielectric fibers for information transmission and define main challenges and tradeoffs in the link implementation. Particularly, we use air or foam-cladded polypropylene-core subwavelength dielectric THz fibers of various diameters (0.57-1.75 mm) to study link performance as a function of the link length of up to ~10 m, and data bitrates of up to 6 Gbps at the carrier frequency of 128 GHz (2.34 mm wavelength). We find that depending on the fiber diameter, th…
Photonic crystal slabs have been widely used in nanophotonics for light confinement, dispersion engineering, nonlinearity enhancement, and other unusual effects arising from their structural periodicity. Sub-micron device sizes and mode volumes are routine for silicon-based photonic crystal slabs, however spectrally they are limited to operate in the near infrared. Here, we show that two single-layer graphene sheets allow silicon photonic crystal slabs with submicron periodicity to operate in the terahertz regime, with an extreme 100x wavelength reduction and excellent out-of-plane confinement…
In this Letter, we theoretically propose for the first time that graphene monolayers can be used for superscatterer designs. We show that the scattering cross section of the bare deep-subwavelength dielectric cylinder is markedly enhanced by six orders of magnitude due to the excitation of the first-order resonance of graphene plamons. By utilizing the tunability of the plasmonic resonance through tuning graphene's chemical potential, the graphene superscatterer works in a wide range of frequencies from several terahertz to tens of terahertz.
Near-field imaging with terahertz (THz) waves is emerging as a powerful technique for fundamental research in photonics and across physical and life sciences. Spatial resolution beyond the diffraction limit can be achieved by collecting THz waves from an object through a small aperture placed in the near-field. However, light transmission through a sub-wavelength size aperture is fundamentally limited by the wave nature of light. Here, we conceive a novel architecture that exploits inherently strong evanescent THz field arising within the aperture to mitigate the problem of vanishing transmiss…
Terahertz subwavelength imaging aims at developing THz microscopes able to resolve deeply subwavelength features. To improve the spatial resolution beyond the diffraction limit, a current trend is to use various subwavelength probes to convert the near-field to the far-field. These techniques, while offering significant gains in spatial resolution, inherently lack the ability to rapidly obtain THz images due to the necessity of slow pixel-by-pixel raster scan and often suffer from low light throughput. In parallel, in the visible spectral range, several super-resolution imaging techniques were…
We present plasmonic Bragg reflectors for increasing the extraordinary optical transmission through periodic arrays of subwavelength apertures in a metal film. The increase in transmission arises by preventing loss at the edges of the array. The plasmonic Bragg reflectors have periodicity of half the usual array's periodicity. Nano-hole arrays flanked thus by reflectors exchibited double the transmission as compared to the arrays without reflectors. These structures may also be used to isolate devices in plasmonic integrated circuits.
The terahertz transmission properties of symmetrical and asymmetrical annular apertures arrays (AAAs) are investigated both experimentally and numerically. It is found that only odd order resonant modes are observed for the symmetrical structures but both odd and even order resonances can be shown for the asymmetrical structures. Breaking the symmetry of AAAs by gradually displacing the H-shaped AAAs to U-shaped AAAs allows an intensity modulation depth of 99% of the second order resonance. Simulation results verify the experimental conclusions well. This result provides a tremendous opportuni…
A metamaterial made by stacked hole-array layers known as a fishnet metamaterial behaves as a hyperbolic metamaterial at wavelength much longer than hole-array period. However, the analytical formulae of effective parameters of a fishnet metamaterial have not been reported hindering the design of deep-subwavelength imaging devices using this structure. We report the new closed-form formulae of effective parameters comprising anisotropic dispersion relation of a fishnet metamaterial working at terahertz or microwave frequency. These effective parameters of a fishnet metamaterial are consistent …
Photonic crystals and metamaterials have emerged as two classes of tailorable materials that enable precise control of light. Plasmonic crystals, which can be thought of as photonic crystals fabricated from plasmonic materials, Bragg scatter incident electromagnetic waves from a repeated unit cell. However, plasmonic crystals, like metamaterials, are composed of subwavelength unit cells. Here, we study terahertz plasmonic crystals of several periods in a two dimensional electron gas. This plasmonic medium is both extremely subwavelength ($\approx λ/100$) and reconfigurable through the applicat…
In modern terahertz (THz) sensing and imaging spectroscopy, water is considered a nemesis to be avoided due to strong absorption in the THz frequency range. Here we report the first experimental demonstration and theoretical implications of using femtosecond laser pulses to generate intense broadband THz emission from water vapor. When we focused an intense laser pulse in water vapor contained in a gas cell or injected from a gas jet nozzle, an extraordinarily strong THz field from optically excited water vapor is observed. Water vapor has more than 50% greater THz generation efficiency than d…
Influence of hole shape on extraordinary optical transmission was investigated using hole arrays consisting of rectangular holes with different aspect ratio. It was found that the transmission could be tuned continuously by rotating the hole array. Further more, a phase was generated in this process, and linear polarization states could be changed to elliptical polarization states. This phase was correlated with the aspect ratio of the holes. An intuitional model was presented to explain these results.
We show that, a metasurface composed of subwavelength metallic slit array embedded in an asymmetric environment can exhibit either extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) or extraordinary optical diffraction (EOD). By employing an analytical model expansion method and the diffraction order chart in k-vector space, we found that the resonance decaying pathway of the local slit cavity mode can be tuned to either 0th or -1st diffraction order by changing the parallel wavevector, which gives rise to enhanced 0th transmission (EOT) of the structure for small incident angles, and enhanced -1st diff…
We study, and illustrate with numerical calculations, transmission enhancement by subwavelength 2D slits due to the dominant role played by the excitation of the eigenmodes of plasmonic cylinders when they are placed at the aperture entrance; and also due to reinforced and highly localized energy in the slit as a consequence of the formation of a nanojet. We show that, providing the illumination is chosen such that an aperture transmitting eigenmode is generated, the phenomenon is independent of whether or not the slit alone produces extraordinary transmission; although in the former case this…
We analytically describe light transmission through a single subwavelength slit in a thin perfect electric conductor screen for the incident polarization being perpendicular to the slit, and derive simple, yet accurate, expressions for the average electric field in the slit and the transmission efficiency. The analytic results are consistent with full-wave numerical calculations, and demonstrate that slits of widths ~100nm in real metals may feature non-resonant (i.e., broadband) field enhancements of ~100 and transmission efficiency of ~10 at infrared or terahertz frequencies, with the associ…
We investigate the mechanism of extraordinary optical transmission in subwave-length metal hole arrays. Experimental results for the arrays consisting of square or rectangle holes are well explained about the dependence of transmission strength on the polarization direction of the incident light. This polarization dependence occurs in each single-hole. For a hole array, there is in addition an interplay between the adjacent holes which is caused by the transverse magnetic field of surface plasmon polariton on the metal film surfaces. Based on the detailed study of a single-hole and two-hole st…
The canalization of terahertz surface plasmon polaritons using a modulated graphene monolayer is investigated for subwavelength imaging. An anisotropic surface conductivity formed by a set of parallel nanoribbons with alternating positive and negative imaginary conductivities is used to realize the canalization regime required for hyperlensing. The ribbons are narrow compared to the wavelength, and are created electronically by gating a graphene layer over a corrugated ground plane. Good quality canalization of surface plasmon polaritons is shown in the terahertz even in the presence of realis…
We numerically analyse extraordinary terahertz transmission properties of an array of rectangular shaped apertures perforated periodically on a thin metal film. The apertures are tapered at different angles to achieve higher field concentration at the tapered end. The periodic sub-wavelength scale apertures ensure plasmonic behaviour giving rise to the enhanced transmission of a specific frequency mode decided by the periodicity. We compare results of transmission with the rectangular shaped apertures of same parameters and observe a significant increase in the transmission for the tapered cas…
We theoretically investigate second harmonic generation that originates from the nonlinear, magnetic Lorentz force term from single and multiple apertures carved on thick, opaque metal substrates. The linear transmission properties of apertures on metal substrates have been previously studied in the context of the extraordinary transmission of light. The transmission process is driven by a number of physical mechanisms, whose characteristics and relative importance depend on the thickness of the metallic substrate, slit size, and slit separation. In this work we show that a combination of cavi…
We present a concrete picture of spoof surface plasmons (SSPs) combined with cavity resonance to clarify the basic mechanism underlying extraordinary light transmission through metal films with subwavelength slits or holes. This picture may indicate a general mechanism of metallic nanostructure optics: When light is incident on a non-planar conducting surface, the free electrons cannot move homogeneously in response to the incident electric field, i.e., their movement can be impeded at the rough parts, forming inhomogeneous charge distributions. The oscillating charges/dipoles then emit photon…
Manipulation of subwavelength objects by engineering the electromagnetic waves in the environment medium is pivotal for several particle handling techniques. In this letter, we theoretically demonstrate the possibility of engineering a compact and tunable plasmon-based terahertz tweezer using a graphene monolayer that is deposited on a high-index substrate. Under total-internal-reflection illumination, such device is shown to be capable of inducing an enhanced rotating polarizability thus enabling directional near-field coupling into the graphene plasmon mode and radiation modes in the substra…
This paper has presented inversely determining the resonant configuration of the bilateral nanostructures for periodic metallic slits with extraordinary optical transmission performance. The topology optimization approach is utilized to implement the inverse design procedure. Several geometrical configurations of the bilateral nanostructures are derived for periodic metallic slits. The resonant performance of the derived nanostructures are demonstrated by the transmission spectra, where the transmission peak is presented at the specified wavelength in the inverse design procedure. This provide…
Metallic structures with periodic array of slits are well-known to lead to extraordinary power transmission, when slits have dimensions much less than the wavelength of incident optical wave. Excellent power transmission originates from surface waves excited by incident transverse magnetic wave. Here we show that metallic structure with array of stepped-slits can transmit power of incident wave into the substrate at desired optical frequency entirely and simultaneously in terahertz frequency band by 70%, for In0.53Ga0.47As substrate. Transmitted power of the proposed structure is studied both …
The development of responsive metamaterials has enabled the realization of compact tunable photonic devices capable of manipulating the amplitude, polarization, wave vector, and frequency of light. Integration of semiconductors into the active regions of metallic resonators is a proven approach for creating nonlinear metamaterials through optoelectronic control of the semiconductor carrier density. Metal-free subwavelength resonant semiconductor structures offer an alternative approach to create dynamic metamaterials. We present InAs plasmonic disk arrays as a viable resonant metamaterial at t…
We study the problem of resonant extraordinary transmission of electromagnetic and acoustic waves through subwavelength slits in an infinite plate, whose thickness is close to a half-multiple of the wavelength. We build on the matched-asymptotics analysis of Holley & Schnitzer (Wave Motion, 91 102381, 2019), who considered a single-slit configuration assuming an idealised formulation where dissipation is neglected and the electromagnetic and acoustic problems are analogous. We here extend that theory to include thin dissipative boundary layers associated with finite conductivity of the plate i…
A planar near-field magnetoinductive lens operating in the microwave range is presented. The proposed device consists of two parallel planar arrays of metallic broadside coupled (BC-) split ring resonators (SRRs), or BC-SRRs. Power coming from a point-like source located in front of the lens is focused into a receiver located in free space behind the device. This focus is clearly removed from the back side of the lens, and has a size which is an order of magnitude smaller than the free space wavelength of the incoming radiation. The imaging properties of the device mainly relies on the excitat…
Reconstruction of light profiles with amplitude and phase information, called holography, is an attractive optical technique to display three-dimensional images. Due to essential requirements for an ideal hologram, subwavelength control of both amplitude and phase is crucial. Nevertheless, traditional holographic devices have suffered from their limited capabilities of incomplete modulation in both amplitude and phase of visible light. Here, we propose a novel metasurface that is capable of completely controlling both amplitude and phase profiles of visible light independently with subwaveleng…
Terahertz chiral sensing and polarization-multiplexing communication demand subwavelength devices that dynamically invert polarization helicity. Metasurfaces can enhance anisotropy and fine tunability at subwavelength scales for this purpose. Although metasurfaces enabling deep modulation between orthogonal polarizations have been designed, they suffer from low conversion efficiencies. In this study, it is shown that the efficiency of conversion from linear to circular polarization by conventional single-layer transmissive metasurfaces cannot exceed a fundamental limit. A dynamic reflective me…
Plasmonic metasurfaces based on the extraordinary optical transmission effect (EOT) can be designed to efficiently transmit specific spectral bands from the visible to the far-infrared regimes, offering numerous applications in im-portant technological fields such as compact multispectral imaging, biological and chemical sensing, or color displays. However, due to their subwavelength nature, EOT metasurfaces are nowadays fabricated with nano- and micro-lithographic techniques, requiring many processing steps and carried out in expensive cleanroom environments. In this work, we propose and expe…
An electrically tunable terahertz (THz) plasmonic device is designed and fabricated using liquid metals (eutectic gallium indium EGaIn) and shape memory alloy wires (Flexinol). The liquid metal is injected into the voids of a poly(dimethyl) siloxane (PDMS) microfluidic mold forming a periodic array of subwavelength apertures, while the wires are inserted into the elastomer below the metal plane. When a DC voltage is applied to the wires, they contract via Joule heating, reducing the aperture periodicity and blue-shifting the transmission resonances of the device. When the voltage is removed, t…
This work presents a mathematical theory for electromagnetic scattering resonances in a subwavelength annular hole embedded in a metallic slab, with the annulus width $h\ll1$. The model is representative among many 3D subwavelength hole structures, which are able to induce resonant scattering of electromagnetic wave and the so-called extraordinary optical transmission. We develop a multiscale framework for the underlying scattering problem based upon a combination of the integral equation in the exterior domain and the waveguide mode expansion inside the tiny hole. The matching of the electrom…
Modern scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) has become an indispensable tool in material research. However, as the s-SNOM technique marches into the far-infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) regimes, emerging experiments sometimes produce puzzling results. For example, anomalies in the near-field optical contrast have been widely reported. In this Letter, we systematically investigate a series of extreme subwavelength metallic nanostructures via s-SNOM near-field imaging in the GHz to THz frequency range. We find that the near-field material contrast is greatly impacted …
