Tunable terahertz metamaterial absorber actuated by thermomechanical bimaterial microcantilevers.

We report a tunable terahertz (THz) metamaterial absorber (MA) actuated by thermomechanical bimaterial microcantilevers. The THz MA, which is suspended on a silicon substrate by the bimaterial microcantilevers, is a sandwich structure with a bottom Al ground plane, middle air and SiNx dielectric layers, and a top Al rotationally symmetric open split ring resonator. Upon application of a current, a Ti heating resistor integrated on the SiNx dielectric layer induces the bimaterial microcantilevers to bend, causing the air layer thickness to change, modulating the absorption of the THz MA. The tunable THz MA exhibited a relative modulation depth of absorption of 28.1% at 0.69 THz and a thermomechanical sensitivity of 0.12°/K. This tunable THz MA has potential applications in filtering, modulation, control, and THz imaging.