Hyperbolic metamaterial structures based on graphene for THz super-resolution imaging applications

Abstract

The diffraction limit of light due to the loss of evanescent waves that carry high spatial frequency information in the far field restricts the practical applications of terahertz imaging technology. In order to break the diffraction limit, we investigate the super-resolution capability of different types of multilayered graphene-dielectric hyperbolic metamaterials. A super-resolution of λ/10 is achieved for both the cylindrical and planar structures. A prominent advantage of graphene-dielectric hyperbolic structures is the dynamic tunability of the dispersion and super-resolution performance by adjusting the chemical potential of graphene through conveniently changing the gate voltage without modifying the geometry of the hyperbolic structures. Furthermore, we have investigated the influence of bilayer thickness variations on the super-resolution performance. Finally, we apply the planar hyperbolic structures for the super-resolution imaging and a roughly five-fold lateral resolution enhancement is realized in our approach. Due to many prominent advantages including super-resolution over broad spectral range, dynamic tunability, good stability and robustness, we believe this work could contribute to the improvement of the resolutions of terahertz imaging systems and the development of hyperbolic metamaterial modulation devices in the terahertz band.