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Broadband and polarization insensitive design of terahertz absorber with high-index contrast grating on SOI chip

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Abstract

Simple design of a broadband terahertz absorber consisting of a high-index contrast grating (HCG) on a silicon-on-insulator chip is proposed. Large absorption (98.4 %) over a wavelength range of 66–84 \(\upmu \hbox {m}\) is obtained for normal incidence with large fabrication tolerance (\(14\,\upmu \hbox {m}\) grating period tolerance for grating height of \(2.6\,\upmu \hbox {m}\)). The absorption remains high (\(\sim \)98 %) for wide range of angle of incidence from \(0^{\circ }\) (normal incidence) to \(60^{\circ }\). The bandwidth of high absorption (\(\sim \)98 %) is also large i.e. \(40\,\upmu \hbox {m}\) over a wide range of angle of incidence from \(0^{\circ }\) to \(60^{\circ }\). The proposed broadband terahertz absorber also exhibits the design flexibility for the realization of polarization insensitivity with respect to the incident light of arbitrary polarizations. The proposed structure is easy-to-fabricate with a large fabrication tolerance which may provide a desirable broadband absorption for practical applications in terahertz devices. The proposed absorber is designed using rigorous coupled wave analysis and the results are in good agreement (with a maximum difference of 0.6 % in absorption) with those obtained with finite difference time domain method. The proposed characteristics of the device arise from the wavelength scalability and broadband nature of the HCG.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab, India

    Sheenu Jindal & Mukesh Kumar

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  1. Sheenu Jindal
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  2. Mukesh Kumar
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Correspondence to Mukesh Kumar.

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Jindal, S., Kumar, M. Broadband and polarization insensitive design of terahertz absorber with high-index contrast grating on SOI chip. Opt Quant Electron 47, 1693–1702 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-014-0026-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-014-0026-9

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