Terahertz metamaterial (THz MM) absorber, as an important type of MM functional device, can not only achieve perfect absorption of incident THz waves, but also act as a refractive index sensor to capture and monitor changes in the information about surrounding environment. Generally, the sensing characteristics of the THz MM absorber can be improved by optimizing the structure of the surface metal resonance unit and changing the material and shape of the dielectric layer. In order to further study the influence of the intermediate dielectric layer on the sensing characteristics of the THz MM absorber, in this paper we implement three THz MM absorbers with continuous dielectric layer, discontinuous dielectric layer and microcavity structure based on the metallic split-ring resonator array, and conduct in-depth study of their sensing characteristics and sensing mechanism.
The THz MM absorber with continuous dielectric layer and metallic split-ring resonator array can be used as a refractive index sensor to realize the sensing detection of analytes coated on its surface with different refractive indexes. However, it can be seen from its corresponding refractive index frequency sensitivity and FOM value that the detection sensitivity of this sensor is limited, and its sensing performance still needs improving. The main reason is that most of the resonant electromagnetic (EM) field of the THz MM absorber is tightly bound in the intermediate dielectric layer, and only the fringe field extending to the surface of the MM absorber resonant unit array can interact with the analyte to be measured, and the intensity of this part of the field directly determines the sensitivity of the sensor. In order to further improve the refractive index frequency sensitivity of the THz MM absorber, reduce the restriction of the intermediate dielectric layer to the resonant EM field, and enhance the interaction between the resonant EM field and the analyte to be measured, a THz MM absorber with discontinuous dielectric layer is proposed and studied. Compared with the THz MM absorber with continuous dielectric layer, the THz MM absorber based on discontinuous dielectric layer can be used as a refractive index sensor to realize higher-sensitivity sensing and detection of the analyte coated on the surface. In order to further enhance the interaction between the resonant EM field and the analyte to be measured, and improve the refractive index frequency sensitivity of the THz MM absorber, a THz MM absorber with a microcavity structure is proposed. For this THz MM absorber, the analyte to be measured filled in the microcavity structure can serve as the intermediate dielectric layer of the THz MM absorber, and when the metallic split-ring resonator array is completely immersed in the analyte to be measured, the resonant EM field originally confined in the intermediate dielectric layer and the analyte to be measured completely overlap in space. Therefore, compared with the first two THz MM absorbers, THz MM absorber with a microcavity structure achieves the tightly and fully contacting the resonant EM field, thereby greatly improving its sensitivity as a sensor.
The results show that in order to improve the sensing characteristics of the THz MM absorber, such as the refractive index sensitivity and the maximum detection range, in addition to using the materials with lower relatively permittivity as the intermediate dielectric layer, the morphology of the intermediate dielectric layer can be changed, thereby reducing the restraint of the intermediate dielectric layer on the resonant field and enhancing the coupling between the resonant field and the analyte to be measured. Compared with the conventional THz MM absorber with continuous dielectric layer, the MM absorber with discontinuous dielectric layer and microcavity structure have many superior sensing characteristics, and can be applied to the high-sensitivity and rapid detection of analytes to be measured, and has a broader application prospect in the future sensing field.
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