Editorial for the Focus Issues on
Terahertz Metamaterials
Recent advances in metamaterials have enabled the Veselago prediction proposed nearly half a century ago to be realistic due to the introduction of subwavelength meta-atoms that possess unusual electromagnetic properties not found in nature, thereby showing fantastic phenomena, such as invisibility cloaking and superlensing, and great potentials for breakthrough device applications. Terahertz radiation (0.1–10 THz) is an intriguing electromagnetic wave that promises a wide variety of essential applications, particularly in sensing, imaging, communications, and spectroscopy. Recently, an exciting new field, terahertz metamaterials has emerged due to rapid development of both metamaterials and terahertz technologies. Being composed of periodically arranged unit cells of subwavelength dimensions, metamaterials are having the ability to tailor the flow of terahertz wave in a manner beyond what is possible with naturally occurring materials. It thus enables developing next-generation integrated terahertz devices and components with desired functionalities capable of being integrated into compact platforms for applications like aerospace communications, surveillance systems, terahertz imaging, sensing, and non-destructive detections.
The focus issues are comprised of ten invited articles from worldwide well established experts in this field with an ultimate goal of stimulating the continuing rapid growth of terahertz metamaterials research. The articles will be published in two separated issues, i.e. Vol. 6, No. 1 and No. 2.
We are indebted to the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Shenggang Liu, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, for inviting us to serve as the guest editors for these important and timely focus issues. We also appreciate the Copy Editor, Miss Renbin Zhong, for her help in ensuring the timely production of the focus issues.
The Guest Editors：
Weili Zhang, Ph.D.
Tianjin University
Center for Terahertz Waves
Room 606, Building 26, Suite C
92 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China
Phone: +86 22 2789 1015
Email: thztju@tju.edu.cn
Tie Jun Cui, Ph.D.
Southeast University
State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves
Nanjing 210096, China
Phone: +86 13382760801
Email: tjcui@seu.edu.cn
TST, Vol. 6, No. 1, PP. 1-25
(Invited Paper) Tunable terahertz metamaterials
H. Tanoto, L. Ding, and J. H. Teng *
Institute of Materials Research and Engineering
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
3 Research Link, Singapore 117602
* Email: jh-teng@imre.a-star.edu.sg
(Received January 2, 2013)
Abstract: The adoption of metamaterials in the development of key terahertz (THz) components has led to tremendous theoretical and technological progress in the THz field. This Review discusses the methods and current progresses in tunable THz metamaterials, offering a glimpse of the future applications of these novel devices.
Keywords: Terahertz metamaterials, Terahertz devices, Tunable metamaterials, Metadevices
doi: 10.11906/TST.001-025.2013.03.01
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TST, Vol. 6, No. 1, PP. 26-39
(Invited Paper) A Brief review on terahertz metamaterial perfect absorbers
Li Huang 1 and Hou-Tong Chen 2*
1 Physics Department, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150001, China
2 Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
1 Email: lihuang2002@hit.edu.cn
*2 Email: chenht@lanl.gov
(Received January 2, 2013)
Abstract: Metal-dielectric-metal metamaterial structures have enabled near-unity absorption with deep sub-wavelength thickness. The high absorption and low mass volume, as well as the structure simplicity, compactness and design flexibility, are important for many potential applications. They have attracted great worldwide interest in the whole electromagnetic spectrum range, and may have special significance in the terahertz regime. This paper provides a brief review on the development of terahertz metamaterial perfect absorbers, particularly focusing on the design principle, thickness reduction, bandwidth broadening, and theoretical modelling.
Keywords: Metamaterials, Terahertz, Absorbing materials, Interference, Electromagnetic waves
doi: 10.11906/TST.026-039.2013.03.02
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TST, Vol. 6, No. 1, PP. 40-58
(Invited Paper) Terahertz metamaterial absorbers
Mohammad Parvinnezhad Hokmabadi, David S. Wilbert, Patrick Kung , Seongsin M. Kim *
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Alabama, USA
* Email: seongsin@eng.ua.edu
(Received January 2, 2013)
Abstract: Terahertz (THz) electromagnetic waves share a few of the characteristics of optical and gigahertz waves, which makes them suitable for a number of interesting and new applications in imaging, spectroscopy, characterization, sensing and monitoring. Recently, there has been a huge interest in developing THz devices that can achieve this potential. One of these devices is a metamaterial THz perfect absorber, which was first proposed in 2008 and is believed to form the basis for future room temperature THz detectors. Since then, a large amount of research has been focused on developing such THz absorbers with various properties, including dual band, multiband, wide band and polarization insensitivity. In this article, we present a brief review of the current state-of-the-art of THz metamaterial absorbers and discuss in more detail two specific THz absorber structures.
Keywords: Terahertz, Metamaterial, Absorber
doi: 10.11906/TST.040-058.2013.03.03
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TST, Vol. 6, No. 1, PP. 59-65
(Invited Paper) Propagation of terahertz waves in one-dimensional metallic wire arrays
Hui Feng 1, 2 and Li Wang 1*
1 Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
2 Research Center for Microwave Photonics, East China Research Institute of Electronic Engineering, Hefei 230088, China
*1 Email: wangli@aphy.iphy.ac.cn
(Received January 2, 2013)
Abstract: Experiment and simulation of the guiding of terahertz electromagnetic wave in one dimensional metallic wire arrays are performed. Our wire array structure supports two propagating modes with frequencies c/d and c/2d, where c is the speed of light in vacuum and d is the distance between the two adjacent wires. The attenuations of the two modes are 0.16 dB/wire and 0.71 dB/wire, respectively.
Keyword: Terahertz, Propagation, Metallic wire array, Subwavelength, Resonance
doi: 10.11906/TST.059-065.2013.03.04
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TST, Vol. 6, No. 1, PP. 66-94
(Invited Paper) Metamaterials: paving the way for terahertz technology
Jianqiang Gu 1* , Jiaguang Han 1, Zhen Tian 1, Chunmei Ouyang 1, Mingxia He 1 and Weili Zhang 1, 2
1 Center for Terahertz waves and College of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, and the Key Laboratory of Optoelectronics Information and Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin 300072, China
2 School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078, USA
*1 Email: gjq@tju.edu.cn
(Received January 2, 2013)
Abstract: As a new branch of artificial devices, metamaterials have attracted numerous interest in interdisciplinary research fields. The profound scientific significance and ingenious functionalities of metamaterials present state of the art of factitious components. Especially, in the terahertz regime, metamaterials are comprehensively exploited as various terahertz functional components, which pave a way to supporting the development of the rising terahertz technology. Here, a number of metamaterial based functioning terahertz devices are reviewed, including advanced passive components and active geometries. Their design, fabrication, verifications, functionalities, and physical interpretations are presented. The prospective applications of terahertz metamaterials and their challenges are also discussed.
Keywords: Terahertz, Metamaterials, Time-domain spectroscopy
doi: 10.11906/TST.066-094.2013.03.05
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