Ultrathin and Electrically Tunable Metamaterial with Nearly Perfect Absorption in Mid-Infrared

Abstract

Metamaterials integrated with graphene exhibit tremendous freedom in tailoring their optical properties, particularly in the infrared region, and are desired for a wide range of applications, such as thermal imaging, cloaking, and biosensing. In this article, we numerically and experimentally demonstrate an ultrathin (total thickness < λ 0 / 15 ) and electrically tunable mid-infrared perfect absorber based on metal–insulator–metal (MIM) structured metamaterials. The Q-values of the absorber can be tuned through two rather independent parameters, with geometrical structures of metamaterials tuning radiation loss (Qr) of the system and the material loss (tanδ) to further change mainly the intrinsic loss (Qa). This concise mapping of the structural and material properties to resonant mode loss channels enables a two-stage optimization for real applications: geometrical design before fabrication and then electrical tuning as a post-fabrication and fine adjustment knob. As an example, our device demonstrates an electrical and on-site tuning of ~5 dB change in absorption near the perfect absorption region. Our work provides a general guideline for designing and realizing tunable infrared devices and may expand the applications of perfect absorbers for mid-infrared sensors, absorbers, and detectors in extreme spatial-limited circumstances.