High-Q metasurfaces have important applications in high-sensitivity sensing, low-threshold lasers, and nonlinear optics due to the strong local electromagnetic field enhancements. Although ultra-high-Q resonances of bound states in the continuum (BIC) metasurfaces have been rapidly developed in the optical regime, it is still a challenging task in the terahertz band for long years because of absorption loss of dielectric materials, design, and fabrication of nanostructures, and the need for high-signal-to-noise ratio and high-resolution spectral measurements. Here, a polarization-insensitive quasi-BIC resonance with a high-Q factor of 1049 in a terahertz all-silicon metasurface is experimentally achieved, exceeding the current highest record by 3 times of magnitude. And by using this ultra-high-Q metasurface, a terahertz intensity modulation with very low optical pump power is demonstrated. The proposed all-silicon metasurface can pave the way for the research and development of high-Q terahertz metasurfaces.

In this paper, we announce the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) refractive index (RI) sensor based on tapered coreless fiber (TCF) structure. We take full advantage of the transmission characteristics of the coreless fiber, and the experimental results evidence that TCF is able to excite surface plasmon wave effectively. Compared with common SPR sensors, this sensor is easier to fabricate, has better mechanical stability, and offers a comparable sensitivity. The wavelength interrogation sensitivity of the proposed sensor is 2278.4 nm/RIU in the RI range of 1.33-1.391. As the structure of the proposed sensor can lead to multimode interference (MMI), and the gold film is only coated on one side of TCF, MMI spectra appear in the visible light band instead of in the near-infrared. When surrounding RI increases, the resonance wavelength shifts to shorter wavelengths. We get an ultrahigh wavelength interrogation sensitivity, 866.1 nm/RIU, compared with common MMI RI sensors, in the RI range of 1.3864-1.416. Because both SPR and MMI are sensitive to the change of surrounding RI, this sensor can achieve a wide detection range when we use these two phenomena together.

Analogs of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) in metamaterial have undoubtedly become a research hotspot in recent years. In this paper, we summarized some of the literature on EIT published to date and compared their performance. Then, we designed two kinds of metamaterials using aluminum and silicon. Both have the similar glasses-shaped structure of a periodic lattice with one bar resonator and two split ring resonators. We analyzed and compared the EIT performance in the near infrared waveband of these two metamaterials. The metallic EIT metamaterials with large radiation loss and ohmic heat loss have a smaller Q-factor than the dielectric counterpart with less energy loss, while having a higher sensitivity toward the ambient refractive index. The Q-factor of our designed aluminum metamaterial and silicon metamaterial are 10.06 and 412.6, respectively. Their sensitivities are 1642.97 nm/RIU and 433.05 nm/RIU, respectively, which are higher than most of their counterparts in the same waveband in the other literature. For the application of slow light, the dielectric metamaterials with higher Q-factor are far superior to the metallic metamaterials in the same waveband and comparable propagation distance. The group index of the aluminum metamaterial is 42.9, and the group delay is 0.01 ps in the near infrared waveband. For the silicon metamaterial, the group index is approximately 1907.1, and the group delay is 0.89 ps within the transmission window in the near infrared waveband; these values are both higher than most counterparts in the same waveband in other literature. The EIT metamaterials that we designed have excellent performance, and to the best of our knowledge, this paper presents the first detailed comparison of EIT metamaterials made of dielectric and metal with similar structure; this paper may have certain instructive meaning for further research on metamaterial analogues of EIT in the future.

We presented and manufactured a triple-band terahertz (THz) metamaterial absorber with three concentric square ring metallic resonators, a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) layer, and a metallic substrate. The simulation results demonstrate that the absorptivity of 99.5%, 86.4%, and 98.4% can be achieved at resonant frequency of 0.337, 0.496, and 0.718 THz, respectively. The experimental results show three distinct absorption peaks at 0.366, 0.512, and 0.751 THz, which is mostly agreement with the simulation. We analyzed the absorption mechanism from the distribution of electric and magnetic fields. The sensitivity of the three peaks of this triple-band absorber to the surrounding is 72, 103.5, 139.5 GHz/RIU, respectively. In addition, the absorber is polarization insensitive because of the symmetric configuration. The absorber can simultaneously exhibit high absorption effect at incident angles up to 60° for transverse electric (TE) polarization and 70° for transverse magnetic (TM) polarization. This presented terahertz metamaterial absorber with a triple-band absorption and easy fabrication can find important applications in biological sensing, THz imaging, filter and optical communication.

In this paper, a novel kind of sensors for simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature based on all-dielectric metasurfaces is proposed. The metasurfaces are constructed by an array of silicon nanoblocks on top of the bulk fused silica substrate. We used three-dimensional full wave electromagnetic field simulation by finite integral method to accurately calculate the transmission spectrum of the metasurfaces. Two transmission dips corresponding to the electric and magnetic resonances are observed. Both dips shift as the ambient refractive index or the temperature changes. Simulation results show that the sensing sensitivities of two dips to the refractive index are 243.44 nm/RIU and 159.43 nm/RIU, respectively, while the sensitivities to the temperature are 50.47 pm/°C and 75.20 pm/°C, respectively. After introducing four holes into each silicon nanoblock, the electromagnetic field overlap in the surrounding medium can be further promoted, and the sensitivities to the refractive index increase to 306.71 nm/RIU and 204.27 nm/RIU, respectively. Our proposed sensors have advantages of polarization insensitive, small size, and low loss, which offer them high potential applications in physical, biological and chemical sensing fields.

A triple band metamaterial absorber in the terahertz range, incorporating a three closed circle ring resonator, was designed and fabricated on flexible polyethylene terephthalate “PET” substrate. The proposed design was investigated theoretically and experimentally. Computer simulation technology “CST” was used to study the designed structure, while lithography technique was used to fabricate the absorber and terahertz time-domain spectroscopy was utilized to measure the reflectivity. Results showed the presence of three intensive peaks at the resonance frequencies of ‘0.43, 0.61, and 0.88 THz’, which correspond to the absorptivity of 98%, 91%, and 98%, respectively. The sensitivity of the three peaks was found to be ‘70.5, 133, and 149.5 GHz/RIU’, respectively. The parametric studies and field distributions were analysed. Furthermore, the proposed design exhibited polarization insensitivity for both transverse electric “TE” and transverse magnetic “TM” modes from 00 to 900. It was concluded that the proposed design can be specifically viable for some important applications such as ‘THz’ images, filtering, biological sensing, and optical communications.