Terahertz ultrathin film thickness sensor below λ/90 based on metamaterial.

The film thickness sensing based on metamaterial is investigated in the terahertz (THz) region. We fabricated the metamaterial sensor, and demonstrated its resonance by using the THz time-domain spectroscopy system. The results show that the resonant dip redshifts as the film thickness increases, which achieves reliable film sensing in the THz band. Its sensitivity is larger than 9.4 GHz/μm with a film thinner than λ/90. Meanwhile, the sensing mechanism is revealed by the simulation of near-field resonance distribution, which shows that the resonant intensity is stronger when the field is closer to the interface between the metamaterial surface and polyvinyl alcohol film. Therefore, the nonlinear type of the sensing sensitivity in our experiment can be well explained, and a higher sensitive sensing can be obtained when the film thickness is smaller. This simple and flexible method can realize the ultrathin film sensing in the THz region, and has application potential in the real-time monitoring of sample quality.