A thermally tunable terahertz three-dimensional perfect metamaterial absorber for temperature sensing application

We present a three-dimensional (3D) perfect metamaterial absorber (PMA) for temperature sensing application in terahertz region. The PMA consists of a 3D metal resonator structure array and a continuous metal film separated by an indium antimonide (InSb) layer. The numerical simulations demonstrate that the PMA can achieve perfect absorption (about 99.9%) with the high Q-factor of about 18.8 at 2.323 THz when the temperature is 300 K (room temperature). Further simulation results indicate that this terahertz PMA is polarization-insensitive and wide-angle for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) waves. The electric field and surface current distributions of the unit-cell structure indicate that the perfect absorption is originated from the excitation of the fundamental magnetic and electric dipole resonance mode. Since the permittivity of the InSb is sensitive to the external temperature, the resonance absorption frequency of the PMA can be dynamically adjusted. The temperature sensitivity of the PMA is about 15.24 GHz/K, which may have potential prospects in temperature sensing and detection.