Switchable dual ultra-broadband perfect absorber based on graphene and vanadium dioxide hybrid metamaterials

Abstract

The phase transition property of vanadium dioxide (VO2) makes it an attractive field in temperature-controlled chips. In this paper, a microstructure based on a graphene disk and a ring-shaped VO2 hybrid metamaterial is proposed to achieve switchable dual ultra-broadband perfect absorption in the terahertz region, which is analyzed by the phase transition property of VO2 and the dynamic electrical regulation of graphene. When the graphene disk is not present, the absorption intensity can reach up to 97.07%. When the graphene disk is present and respectively interacts with the VO2 metallic and insulated phases, the results exhibit an ultra-broadband perfect absorption (>90%) from 1.620 THz to 4.533 THz and from 1.506 THz to 3.576 THz, respectively, where the bandwidths are as high as 2.913 THz and 2.070 THz, respectively. Adjusting the Fermi level of graphene and the VO2 conductivity allows the absorption intensity and bandwidth to be effectively controlled, where the fractional bandwidth from 81.46% to 94.69% and a high modulation depth of 95.09% can be achieved. These results suggest that dual ultra-broad perfect absorption can be dynamically switched within a single absorber and has various modulation means, which are expected to be developed in applying multifunctional modulators.