A metamaterial absorber for the

terahertz regime: Design, fabrication

and characterization
Hu Tao1† , Nathan I. Landy2† , Christopher M. Bingham2 , Xin Zhang1 ,
Richard D. Averitt3, and Willie J. Padilla2
1 Boston University, Department of Manufacturing Engineering, 15 Saint Mary’s Street,
Brookline, Massachusetts 02446, USA.
2 Boston College, Department of Physics, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

USA.
3 Boston University, Department of Physics, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston,

Massachusetts 02215, USA.

†
Contributed equally to this work.
Willie.Padilla@bc.edu

Abstract: We present a metamaterial that acts as a strongly resonant

absorber at terahertz frequencies. Our design consists of a bilayer unit
cell which allows for maximization of the absorption through indepen-
dent tuning of the electrical permittivity and magnetic permeability. An
experimental absorptivity of 70% at 1.3 terahertz is demonstrated. We
utilize only a single unit cell in the propagation direction, thus achieving an
absorption coefficient α = 2000 cm −1 . These metamaterials are promising
candidates as absorbing elements for thermally based THz imaging, due to
their relatively low volume, low density, and narrow band response.
© 2008 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (40.2235)Far infrared or Terahertz; (50.6624) Subwavelength structures;
(110.6795) Terahertz Imaging; (160.1890) Detector Materials; (160.3918) Metamaterials;
(260.5740) Resonance.

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The electromagnetic response of natural materials forms the basis for the construction of
most modern optoelectronic devices. However, this EM response is not evenly distributed
across the electromagnetic spectrum. At frequencies of a few hundred gigahertz and lower,
electrons are the principle particles which serve as the workhorse of devices. On the other hand,
at infrared through optical / UV wavelengths, the photon is the fundamental particle of choice.
In-between these two fundamental response regimes there exists a region comparatively devoid
of material response, commonly referred to as the “terahertz gap” (0.1-10 THz, λ =3mm-30μ m)
[1, 2]. Although enormous efforts have focused on the search for “terahertz” materials or alter-
native novel techniques to enable the construction of device components, much work remains.
There is a wide range of natural phenomena that could be probed with terahertz (THz) devices.
Specifically, a THz detector would be useful for imaging in areas such as biology [3, 4] and
security [5, 6, 7, 8, 9].
Recently, there has been considerable effort to construct engineered electromagnetic mate-
rials for operation specifically within the void of natural material response described above

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 (a) (b) (c)

E
E, x E, x
κ

H, y H, y H
κ κ

Fig. 1. (color) Schematics of the THz absorber: (a) electric resonator on the top of a poly-
imide spacer; (b) cut wire on GaAs wafer; (c) single unit cell showing the direction of
propagation of incident EM wave. The unit cell is 34 μ m wide and 50 μ m in length. The
line width and gap of the electric resonator is 3 μ m. The side length of the square electric
resonator is 30 μ m, the side length of the cut wire is 48 μ m, and the width of the cut wire
is 4 μ m. Thickness of the electric resonant ring and cut wire is 200 nm. The spacer of
polyimide is 8 μ m thick, and the GaAs wafer is 500 μ m thick.

[10, 11, 12, 13]. These artificial systems, called metamaterials (MMs), are composites whose
EM properties originate from oscillating electrons in unit cells comprised of highly conduc-
tive and shaped metals such as gold or copper. The sub-wavelength unit cell is replicated to
form a material, which allows for a designed resonant response of the metamaterial’s electrical
and magnetic properties. Metamaterials can be regarded as effective media and characterized
by a complex electric permittivity  ε (ω ) = ε1 (ω ) + iε2 (ω ) and complex magnetic permeability
μ
 (ω ) = μ1 (ω ) + iμ2 (ω ). Resonant structures that couple strongly to either the electric [10] or
magnetic [11] fields have been demonstrated at terahertz. Significant growth in metamaterial
research has been due to efforts to create negative refractive index (NRI) materials [14, 15, 16]
and, more recently, invisibility cloaks  [17, 18]. As such, the primary focus has been on the
index of refraction defined as n(ω ) =  ε (ω )μ
 (ω ) = n1 + in2 , where one desires n 1 < 0 for
negative index or 0 < n 1 < 1 for cloaks. To create such structures, it is important to minimize
losses over the operating frequency range, which is associated with the imaginary portion of the
index, and thus strive for n 2 → 0. Conversely, for many other applications it would be desirable
to maximize the metamaterial loss which is an aspect of metamaterial research that, to date,
has received very little attention. A recent example is the creation of a resonant high absorber
which has been demonstrated at microwave frequencies [19]. Such an absorber would be of
particular importance at terahertz frequencies where it is difficult to find naturally occurring
materials with strong absorption coefficients that are also compatible with standard microfab-
rication techniques. By fabricating bilayer metamaterial structures it becomes possible to si-
multaneously tune  ε (ω ) and μ (ω ) such that a high absorptivity can be achieved. In principle,
this tunability could lead to near unity absorptivity. In practice this is limited by achievable
fabrication tolerances.

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 (a) (b) (e)
1.0

0.8

Absorbance
0.6

(c) (d) 0.4

0.2

0.0
0.750 0.875 1.000 1.125 1.250 1.375 1.500

Frequency (THz)

Fig. 2. (color) Simulation results for the electric resonator ring and cut wire. (a) and (b)
show the x-component of the electric field of the electric resonator ring and cut wire at
resonance, respectively; (c) and (d) show the anti-parallel currents driven by magnetic cou-
pling. (e) The absorptivity (blue) yields a value of 98% at 1.12 THz. Reflection (green) and
Transmission (red) are both at normal incidence.

We present a first generation terahertz metamaterial absorber which achieves a resonant ab-
sorptivity of 70% at 1.3 THz. Given the 6 μ m thickness of our metamaterial, this corresponds
to a power absorption coefficient of α =2000 cm −1 which is significant at THz frequencies.
The strong absorption coefficient makes this low volume structure a promising candidate for
the realization of enhanced, spectrally selective, thermal detectors. A single unit of the absorber
consists of two distinct metallic elements: an electrical ring resonator (ERR) Fig. 1 (a) and a
split wire Fig. 1 (b). The electrical ring resonator (ERR) consists of two single split rings sitting
back to back. The two inductive loops are of opposite handedness and thus couple strongly
to a uniform electric field, and negligibly to magnetic fields [10, 20]. The magnetic compo-
nent of light couples to both the center section of the electric resonator and the cut wire, thus
generating antiparallel currents resulting in resonant μ (ω ) response. The magnetic response
can therefore be tuned independently of the electric resonator by changing the geometry of the
cut wire and the distance between elements.By tuning each of the resonances it is possible to
approximately match the impedance (Z = μ /ε ) to free space, i.e. (ε = μ ) ⇒ (Z = Z 0 ) and
minimize the reflectance at a specific frequency. When the material is impedance-matched, the
transmission[21] is governed by the quantity n 2 kd, which can be simultaneously tuned with Z
to obtain high absorption.
Computer simulations were performed using the commercial finite-difference time domain
solver CST Microwave Studio T M 2006B and 2008. The metamaterials depicted in Fig. 1 were
modeled as lossy gold with a conductivity of σ = 1.0×10 7 S/m. The bottom substrate was
modeled as gallium arsenide with a dielectric constant of 10.75. A 8 μ m thick layer of dielectric,
ε =3.5+i0.02 was used as the spacer between the two metallic metamaterial elements. We first

investigated the S-parameters of transmission ( S21 ) and reflection ( S11 ) of a single unit cell
with Perfect Electric (PE) and Perfect Magnetic (PM) boundary conditions along the x̂ and
ŷ directions, respectively, (see Fig. 1). The absorptivity was calculated using the equation A =
1−|S21 |2 −|S11 |2 . The electric and magnetic fields were examined at resonance to verify that we
were coupling to the correct resonant mode of each metamaterial element. In Fig. 2, the resonant
component of the electric field at resonance is plotted for the electric ring resonator (ERR) (a)

#93760 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Mar 2008; revised 25 Apr 2008; accepted 29 Apr 2008; published 2 May 2008
(C) 2008 OSA 12 May 2008 / Vol. 16, No. 10 / OPTICS EXPRESS 7184
 (a) (e)

(b) (f)

(c) (g)

(d) (h)
SI-GaAs AZ5214 photoresist Au/Ti PI-5878G polyimide

Fig. 3. (color) Left panel describes the development process for fabrication of the terahertz
absorber. Right panel shows photographs of the split wire (top) electric ring resonator and
split wire (middle) and an individual unit cell of the terahertz absorber (bottom).

and the split wire (b). The electric field is concentrated strongly in the gaps of the ring resonator
and at the edges of the split wire in accord with previous results [10, 20]. Figures 2 (c) and (d)
show a vector plot of the surface current density for the ERR and the split wire, respectively.
Notice that at resonance currents are anti-parallel in the two metamaterial elements, which is
the basis of the magnetic response and consistent with previous results [19, 22].
By changing the electric and magnetic resonances individually, we were able to create a
condition such that the material was at an impedance near the free space value in a region of
very low T(ω ). The simulated transmission is relatively low across the entire range shown in
Fig. 2 (e), whereas the reflectivity is relatively high except near the resonance at 1.12 THz where
it drops to a value of 2%. Near unity absorbtion is theoretically possible and here we achieve
a simulated value of 98% at 1.12 THz, as shown in Fig. 2(e). It should be noted that at THz
frequencies the magnetic response of both natural materials and metamaterials is significantly
weaker than the electric. Thus, matching the exact form of the ε (ω ) and μ (ω ) resonances
becomes increasingly difficult at these and higher frequencies. Further, from a viewpoint of
spectrally selective thermal imaging, it is desirable to have a narrow-band absorber. Thus we
strive for two requirements of our metamaterials at our target frequency, i.e. Z = Z 0 so that R = 0
and n2 kd  0 so that T → 0. With these two goals we can achieve a significant and narrow-
band A(ω ), but tolerance limits associated with microfabrication can reduce the absorptivity
from unity.
We fabricated the metamaterial shown in Fig. 1 using a surface micromachining process, as
shown in Fig. 3. A semi-insulating GaAs wafer was chosen because it is highly transmissive
at THz frequencies. AZ5214e image reversal photoresist was spin-coated and patterned using
standard photolithography. A 200 nm-thick Au/Ti film was E-beam evaporated to create the
cut wire on the bottom layer. Lift off of the photoresist was achieved by rinsing in acetone
for several minutes. The liquid polyimide, HD Microsystems T M PI-5878G, was spin-coated at
2,000 rpm on the GaAs wafer to form an insulating spacer with a thickness of 8 μ m, and cured
for five hours in an oven at 275 ◦ C in a nitrogen environment after the soft bake at 110 ◦ C for 6
minutes on a hot plate. AZ5214e image reversal photoresist was spin-coated, aligned, and pat-
terned using standard photolithography. Another 200 nm-thick Au/Ti was E-beam evaporated

#93760 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Mar 2008; revised 25 Apr 2008; accepted 29 Apr 2008; published 2 May 2008
(C) 2008 OSA 12 May 2008 / Vol. 16, No. 10 / OPTICS EXPRESS 7185
 1.0 1.0

0.8 0.8

Transmission
Reflectance
0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0.0 0.0
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Frequency (THz) Frequency (THz)

Fig. 4. (color) Experimental results showing the transmission intensity and reflection in-
tensity. The blue lines are experiment and the red line the simulations. The reflectance
measurement was performed at 30◦ off-normal. The transmission measurement was per-
formed at normal incidence.

as the material of the electric resonant ring on the top layer and then lifted off. Microscopic
images of the as-fabricated samples are shown in Fig. 3 (right).
We experimentally verified the behavior of the absorber by measuring the transmission and
reflectance of a large (1 cm×1 cm) planar array. We used an evacuated Fourier transform in-
frared (FTIR) spectrometer in the range from 300 GHz - 3 THz (10 - 100 cm −1 ) with 15 GHz
(0.5 cm−1 ) spectral resolution. For transmission measurements the sample was mounted in the
FTIR at normal incidence with the electric field perpendicular to the gap of ERR, as depicted
in Fig. 1(a). Reflection was performed at an angle of 30 ◦ due to experimental limitations. The
blue curves in Figs. 4(a) and (b) show, respectively, the measured reflectivity and transmission.
Measured R(ω ) and T(ω ) differ significantly from that simulated as shown in Fig. 2(e). How-
ever, it should be noted that values used in simulation for the polyimide spacing layer were
estimated based on published values at lower GHz frequencies. Further, the thickness of the
polyimide layer was measured to be closer to 6μ m rather than the 8μ m used in simulations.
Taking both of these factors into account, we are able to match measurements using an experi-
mentally determined value for polyimide of ε = 2.5+i0.2. The red curves are the corresponding
simulations which are in good agreement with experiment. The simulated reflectance matches
reasonably well near the resonance with slight deviations at lower and higher frequencies. The
simulated transmission also agrees well with experiment, particularly in the vicinity of the res-
onance. Further, the simulated T(ω ) reproduces the same qualitative features as experiment,
including a distinct kink near 1.75 THz.
From experimental data presented in Fig. 4, the corresponding absorptivity is determined as
shown in Fig. 5. These results demonstrate that the as-fabricated MMs have a strong resonance
at around 1.3 THz and a high absorptivity of approximately 70%. Simulations show good agree-
ment with experiment (red). The simulated absorptivity at resonance matches very well with
the measured value. The off-resonance absorptivity is higher in experiment than in simulation
due to differences in the experimental and simulated S-parameters. The response of absorber
could be further improved through refinement and optimization of the fabrication process.
The absorber presented in this work absorbs strongly for light polarized along the x̂ direc-
tion, as shown in Fig. 1, but poor for ŷ polarized light, as shown in Fig. 6. In this polariza-

#93760 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Mar 2008; revised 25 Apr 2008; accepted 29 Apr 2008; published 2 May 2008
(C) 2008 OSA 12 May 2008 / Vol. 16, No. 10 / OPTICS EXPRESS 7186
 1.0

0.8

Absorptivity
0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5

Frequency (THz)

Fig. 5. (color) Experimental results showing absorptivity. Experimental results are in blue
and simulation is in red. The experimental absorptivity reaches a maximum value of 70%
at 1.3 THz. The simulated absorptivity reaches a value of 68% at the same frequency.

tion, the electric field is perpendicular to the center stalk of ERR, so an electric response can-
not be driven. Similarly, there are no parallel wires for the magnetic field to develop a flux
through and thus no net magnetic response. Such a polarization-sensitive device is desirable
for both mm-wave and THz imaging as reflections from metallic objects often saturate the im-
ager, thus significantly degrading it performance, in a problem known as “glint”. Additionally,
polarization-sensitive detection has been shown to aid in discrimination of objects in a scene
[23, 24]. However, by incorporating higher symmetry metamaterials, (similar to those presented
here), a polarization-insensitive design could be acheived.
The performance of a THz radiation detector depends on the efficiency of converting radia-
tion energy to an output signal. Therefore, maximizing the THz radiation absorption efficiency
is integral to the development of a functional THz detector/imager. It is difficult to find strongly
absorbing materials at THz frequencies that are compatible with standard photolithography.
Thus, a potential application of these metamaterial structures is as the absorbing elements in
thermal detectors. A strong absorption coefficient is also necessary to have a small thermal
mass. This is important for optimizing the temporal response of thermal detectors. The meta-
material presented here has a 6 micron thick film and 70% absorptivity, which yields an ab-
sorption coefficient of 2000 cm −1 . With better fabrication tolerances we could approach the
simulated results (Fig. 2). This would yield an absorption coefficient three times greater than
experimentally demonstrated here.
Many micro thermal detectors (typically based on bolometric detection and appropriately
termed microbolometers) utilize several materials as the sensing element such as VOx [25],
poly-Si-Ge [26], YBCO [27], or metal resistors such as, titanium [28] and niobium [29]. Some
of these materials are not fully compatible with microfabrication processing. For those that are,
however, it is difficult and thus expensive to prepare or deposit a high quality film. Addition-
ally, most of these materials show broad-band absorption. This limits potential applications,
such as spectroscopic detection of explosive materials, which show unique responses at var-

#93760 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Mar 2008; revised 25 Apr 2008; accepted 29 Apr 2008; published 2 May 2008
(C) 2008 OSA 12 May 2008 / Vol. 16, No. 10 / OPTICS EXPRESS 7187
 1.0

0.8

0.6

Absorbance 0.4

0.2

0.0
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5

Frequency (THz)

Fig. 6. (color) Simulation results comparing absorptivity for both polarizations. When the
electric field is polarized parallel to the center stalk of the ERR (red) absorption reaches
70%. In the opposite polarization, the absorption only reaches 27%

ied frequencies [9]. The narrowband absorptivity of metamaterials presented here, on the other
hand, enable spectrally selective detection. Furthermore, MMs are geometrically scalable and
have been demonstrated over many decades of frequency. Thus, our results are not limited to
terahertz frequencies and may be used over much of the electromagnetic spectrum. Another
salient feature of the design presented here is that it may be combined with semiconducting
materials or ferroelectrics to enable optically or electrically tunable frequency agile terahertz
metamaterials. This would further permit a hyperspectral metamaterial focal plane array imager
able to imaging over a relatively large band [33]. Planar metamaterial absorbers consisting of
different unit cells with distinct resonance frequencies may permit “multi-color” imaging.
In summary, we have demonstrated that the electromagnetic response of metamaterials can
be tailored by manipulating the geometries of electric and magnetic resonators individually
to create a highly selective absorber over a narrow band at THz frequencies. The successful
demonstration of the high absorber holds great promise for future applications which includes
metamaterial-based structures for creating a narrow-band, low thermal mass absorber as re-
quired for thermal sensing applications.

Acknowledgment
NIL, CMB, RDA and WJP acknowledge support from the Los Alamos National Laboratory
LDRD program. This project has been supported in part by the DOD/Army Research Lab-
oratory through grant W911NF-06-2-0040, DOE Los Alamos National Laboratory subcon-
tract 50332-001-07 and DOE Los Alamos National Laboratory subcontract 50335-001-07. The
authors would like to thank the Photonics Center at Boston University for technical support
throughout the course of this research.

#93760 - $15.00 USD Received 12 Mar 2008; revised 25 Apr 2008; accepted 29 Apr 2008; published 2 May 2008
(C) 2008 OSA 12 May 2008 / Vol. 16, No. 10 / OPTICS EXPRESS 7188