An active multifunctional terahertz modulator based on plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) metasurface under the effect of external infrared light was investigated theoretically and experimentally. A distinct transparency window, which resulted from the near-field coupling between two resonators, could be observed in the transmission spectra. Experimental results showed a phenomenon infrared light induced blue shift on the both resonator with increasing optical powers. When the optical power was tuned from 0 mW to 400 mW, the amplitude tunability of transmission at transparency window reached to 34.01%, much larger than that at the two resonance frequencies. Moreover, the phase tunability of the transmission at 0.98 THz reached to 31.35%. Meanwhile, the amplitude variation was limited to 10%. Furthermore, a coupled Lorentz oscillator model was adopted to analyze the near-field interaction of the resonances. Experimental results were in good agreement with the analytical fitting results.

A plasmon-induced polarization conversion (PIPC) structure based on periodically patterned graphene was demonstrated in the THz regime. By varying the Fermi level of two connected T-shape graphene strips through the electrostatic gating, the peak frequency and the group index in the transparency window can be tuned, which is good agreement with the coupled Lorentz oscillator model. Due to interference between two polarization selective graphene plasmonic resonances coexisting in the planar metamaterial, polarization conversion can be achieved. The linearly polarized THz wave can be converted to elliptically and right circularly polarized THz wave through varying the relaxation time of electrons in graphene. This novel chip-scale active terahertz device promises essential application opportunities in terahertz sensing and terahertz communications.

In this study, the tunable depth of an array of semiconductor indium antimonide (InSb) subwavelength strips was studied by isothermally increasing the intrinsic carrier density, and then increasing the plasma frequency and the dielectric constant in the terahertz (THz) regime. It could be found that the tunable depth can attain 79.07% and the quality factor Q can be up to 7.1 in the window between 0 and 1.2 THz from 450 to 250 K. In order to improve the performance of the device, the strip array of semiconductor InSb on a ferroelectric strontium titanate film was also investigated. The results showed that when the temperature varied from 450 to 250 K, the modulation depth increased and attained 84.06%. These findings would facilitate the design of tunable components in the communication region of the THz regime.

We theoretically present a concise and tunable dual-band metamaterial absorber composed of a typical metal-dielectric-metal structure in the terahertz regime. The dual-band absorption originates from two different resonance modes induced in one square ring, which is different from the common dual-band absorber composed of a super unit with several different-sized structures. The proposed absorber can realize dynamic tunability through changing the permittivity of the dielectric layer by applying different temperatures. Other good performances, such as a wide incident angle and polarization insensitivity, are also available for the proposed absorber. Such a metamaterial absorber is a promising candidate for terahertz imaging and detection.

The dielectric spectra of single-layer PbTiO₃ (PT), single-layer PbZr_xTi_1-xO₃ (PZT) and multilayer PZT/PT thin films under an external optical field were investigated at room temperature by time-domain terahertz (THz) spectroscopy. Results showed that the real part of permittivity increased upon application of an external optical field, which could be interpreted as hardening of the soft mode and increasing of the damping coefficient and oscillator strength. Furthermore, the central mode was observed in the three films. Among the dielectric property of the three thin films studied, the tunability of the PZT/PT superlattice was the largest.