Terahertz Sensor With Resonance Enhancement Based on Square Split-Ring Resonators

Zhonggang Xiong; Liping Shang; Jieping Yang; Linyu Chen; Jin Guo; Quancheng Liu; Samuel Akwasi Danso; Guilin Li

doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3073043

IEEE Access (Jan 2021)

Terahertz Sensor With Resonance Enhancement Based on Square Split-Ring Resonators

Zhonggang Xiong,
Liping Shang,
Jieping Yang,
Linyu Chen,
Jin Guo,
Quancheng Liu,
Samuel Akwasi Danso,
Guilin Li

Affiliations

Zhonggang Xiong: ORCiD; School of Information Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China
Liping Shang: School of Information Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China
Jieping Yang: School of Information Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China
Linyu Chen: School of Information Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China
Jin Guo: School of Information Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China
Quancheng Liu: School of Information Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China
Samuel Akwasi Danso: School of Information Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China
Guilin Li: School of Information Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3073043
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 9
pp. 59211 – 59221

Abstract

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A novel design of a nearly perfect metamaterial absorber based on square split-ring resonators for terahertz sensing applications is proposed and analyzed. The design in this report is simulated and analyzed by using standard numerical simulation software. Magnetic and electric resonant field enhancement in the impedance matched absorber cavity enables stronger interaction with the dielectric analyte. The proposed structure is based on the simultaneous increase in the electromagnetic field and the surface current distribution at the resonance frequency. An absorptivity of 99% is achieved at 0.53 THz with a narrow resonance peak and a Q-factor of 44.17. At a fixed analyte thickness, the resonance frequency is sensitive to the refractive index of the surrounding medium. The influence of the thickness of the covering sample on the sensitivity and absorption coefficient of the absorber is comprehensively analyzed, and the reported design can be used as a refractive index sensor with a high sensitivity of 126.0 GHz/RIU and a figure of merit of 10.5 in the refractive index range from 1.0 to 2.0 at an analyte thickness of $15.0~\mu \text{m}$ . The results show that the sensor has high sensitivity to the analyte covering it. The sensor not only exhibits good sensitivity to thin analytes but also shows high sensitivity to analytes more than $10~\mu \text{m}$ thick in the terahertz low frequency band. Specifically, the sensitivity changes rapidly when the thickness of the sample changes in the range of 0- $6~\mu \text{m}$ , but slowly in the range of 6- $16~\mu \text{m}$ . In general, the response of the resonance frequency to changes in the refractive index of the sample becomes more sensitive as the thickness of the sample is increased from 0 to $16~\mu \text{m}$ . The reported terahertz sensor of a metamaterial absorber has potential applications in biomedical sensing and trace detection of substances.

Published in IEEE Access

ISSN: 2169-3536 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering
Website: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6287639

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