Ultrahigh-Q and Polarization-Independent Terahertz Metamaterial Perfect Absorber

Ensuring a good trade-off between high-quality factor (Q-factor) and polarization independency is a key challenge for designing practicable terahertz metamaterial devices. We propose a symmetric composite aluminum-structured metamaterial absorber to achieve high Q-factor beyond 80 and near-unity absorbance of arbitrary polarization waves in the terahertz regime. Ultrahigh Q-factor reaches 84, and polarization-independent absorption is as high as 99% for resonant frequency tuning from 7.58 to 8.97 THz, covering 14% of the standard THz gap. The geometric effect of the symmetric sublattice on resonant frequency tuning is analyzed. The large Q-factor and strong absorption by oblique incidence is discussed. Designed high-Q metamaterial perfect absorber has various applications, including terahertz hyperspectral imaging, filtering, and sensing.