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Feasibility test on the analog configuration of electromechanical dimple-tip cantilever for the application of THz metamaterials

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Abstract

We numerically and experimentally developed a cantilever that provided both fast and analog actuation for THz metamaterials (MMs) by properly geometrizing a dimpled tip. Owing to its small size and light mass, the cantilever had a high mechanical resonance at 705 kHz. Cantilever arrays were fabricated with different tip gaps and integrated into a ladder-shaped MM (LS-MM). By changing the tip gap from 0.80 to 0.32 μm, the resonance of the transmittance spectrum changed from 1.235 to 0.795 THz, indicating that the reconfigurable LS-MM was capable of continuously tuning the resonance of the THz wave transmission with the tip gap. Additionally, the dimple served as an anti-stiction structure, providing the cantilever with a fabrication yield of 99.8%. This work shows a practical pathway to high-performance active metamaterials, which holds potential in advanced THz technologies such as 6G communications and fast imaging.

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Acknowledgements

Some of this work was performed at the Micro/Nano-Machining Research and Education Center, Tohoku University, Japan. We acknowledge Dr. Satoshi Tomita, Dr. Nobuaki Kikuchi, Dr. Seigo Ohno, and Dr. Toshiyuki Kodama for valuable comments.

Funding

This work was supported in part by JST, CREST Grant Number JPMJCR2102, Japan, and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP22KJ0238.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Robotics, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Ying Huang, Taiyu Okatani, Naoki Inomata & Yoshiaki Kanamori

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  1. Ying Huang
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  2. Taiyu Okatani
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  4. Yoshiaki Kanamori
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Correspondence to Yoshiaki Kanamori.

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Huang, Y., Okatani, T., Inomata, N. et al. Feasibility test on the analog configuration of electromechanical dimple-tip cantilever for the application of THz metamaterials. Opt Rev 31, 351–358 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10043-024-00889-1

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