Tailorable Tuning Range in MEMS Terahertz Metasurfaces

Abstract

The terahertz (0.1–10 THz) spectrum has attracted significant research attention in recent years, owing to its potential in enabling high‐speed wireless communication, analog wavefront computing, and high‐resolution sensing. The interest in the adoption of terahertz technologies has been accelerated by the advent of reconfigurable metasurfaces, which enabled the demonstration of numerous functional terahertz devices such as tunable spectral filters, dynamic polarization converters, and beam steerers. However, tailoring the desired specifications of these functionalities is extremely challenging. In this work, we provide three independent approaches to precisely tailor the terahertz response of the microcantilever metasurfaces by harnessing the interdependent parameters of their electromechanical and electromagnetic responses. The experimental results demonstrate the tailoring of tuning range from 2% to over 51% of the central frequency. Furthermore, the proposed approaches can also be synergistically combined to further enhance the performance of these metasurfaces. Hence, the proposed approaches provide robust means of translating the research demonstrations of terahertz metasurfaces to meet the stringent requirements of future intelligent systems and high‐speed wireless networks.