Genetic optimization of terahertz metamaterial absorber for improved absorption and quality factor

Abstract Terahertz metamaterial absorbers are typically comprised of an array of sub-wavelength meta-atoms, a dielectric spacer layer and a ground plane. The absorption and quality factor are two of the most important performance metrics for various advanced applications, such as THz communication, sensing, and imaging. However, a large number of structural parameters in the meta-atom make the design approach based on physical intuition and parameter sweep impractical and difficult. In this paper, we report an intelligent design methodology based on the genetic algorithm that facilitates the optimization of an air-spaced terahertz metamaterial absorber to improve its absorption and quality factor. The presented approach starts by randomly generating the size parameters of the meta-atom, and it iteratively obtains the optimized design of the dual narrow band terahertz metamaterial perfect absorber. The quality factor for the two near unity-absorption peaks are 23.8 at 0.5 THz and 60.3 at 0.7 THz, respectively. The device was fabricated using the surface and bulk-micromachining processes, and the measured absorption spectra agrees well with the simulated results. Not limited to this proof-of-concept demonstration, this methodology can be applied to all metamaterial-based photonic systems achieving efficient forward optimization design.