Broadband tunable terahertz metamaterial absorber having near-perfect absorbance modulation capability based on a patterned vanadium dioxide circular patch

A new tunable broadband terahertz metamaterial absorber has been designed based on patterned vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ). The absorber consists of three simple layers, the top VO 2 pattern layer, the middle media layer, and the bottom metal layer. Based on phase transition properties of VO 2 , the designed device has excellent absorption modulation capability, achieving the functional transition from broadband absorption to near-perfect reflection. When VO 2 is in the metallic state, there are two absorption peaks observed at frequencies of 4.16 and 6.05 THz, exhibiting near-perfect absorption characteristics; the combination of these two absorption peaks gives rise to the broadband phenomenon and the absorption bandwidth, where the absorbance exceeds 90% and spans from 3.40 to 7.00 THz, with a corresponding relative absorption bandwidth of 69.23%. The impedance matching theory, near-field patterns, and surface current distributions are provided to analyze the causes of broadband absorption. Furthermore, the broadband absorption could be completely suppressed when VO 2 presents the dielectric phase, and its absorbance could be dynamically adjusted from 100% to less than 0.70%, thereby achieving near-perfect reflection. Owing to its symmetrical structure, it exhibits excellent performance in different polarization directions and at large incidence angles. Our proposed absorber may have a wide range of promising applications and can be applied in a variety of fields such as communications, imaging, sensing, and security detection.