A Thermally Controlled Multifunctional Metamaterial Absorber with Switchable Wideband Absorption and Transmission at THz Band

Abstract

This paper proposes a thermally controlled multifunctional metamaterial absorber with switchable wideband absorption and transmission at the THz band based on resistive film and vanadium dioxide (VO2). The function of the absorber can be adjusted by changing the phase transition characteristics of VO2. When VO2 is in a metallic state, the absorber can achieve wideband absorption with above 90% absorption from 3.31 THz to 10 THz and exhibits excellent absorption performance under a wide range of incident and polarization angles. When VO2 is in an insulating state, the metamaterial acts in transmission mode with a transmission coefficient of up to 61% at 5.15 THz. The transmission region is inside the absorption band, which is very important for practical applications. It has the advantages of having a simple structure, wideband absorption, and switchable absorption/transmission with potential application value in the fields of stealth of communication equipment and radar at the THz band.