Modulation of terahertz waves by vo2 based metamaterials/ y Aileen Noori; thesis advisor Gülnur Aygün Özyüzer.

Terahertz (THz) waves, being a form of electromagnetic radiation have frequencies ranging from 0.1 THz to 10 THz. Due to the lack of suitable radiation sources and detectors, this region is not well known. Interaction with THz waves becomes more effective by introducing the metamaterials (MM) and metasurfaces (MS) (3D and 2D, respectively), which are made up of artificially subwavelength compositions arranged in periodic arrays. MMs provide a unique control on the propagation of (EM) waves and their geometries determine their properties. Recently, coding MM has made it possible to regulate the far-field scattering pattern of EM waves. In other words, it is possible to shape the THz wavefront by changing the sequence of the coding unit cells into a 2D surface pattern. The reflection phase of the two types of unit cells in 1-bit coding MM is 0 and π. In this thesis, two different types of coding MMs were designed and fabricated. One type is hard-coded (metal-based), while the other is based on VO2 thin film. Both types of samples share a similar structure, which includes a sapphire substrate, a gold patch, a PET layer serving as a dielectric spacer, and a ground gold layer. However, there is an additional layer of VO2 beneath the gold patch and on top of the sapphire substrate in one of the fabricated MMs. The coding MM consists of two identical unit cells, with the only distinction being the size of the gold patch’s side. This size determines whether the unit cell is considered as 0-bit or 1-bit. When the side size is 90 µm, the unit cell is 0-bit. On the other hand, when the side sizes are 60 µm and 70 µm (for different samples), the unit cell is 1-bit. Two different sets of hard-coded MM were fabricated. One set is composed of the 60-90 µm unit cells arranged in the form of checkerboard and stripe designs. The other set is made of 70-90 µm unit cells arranged in the form of checkerboard and stripe designs. The samples were measured with a custom-built setup and the THz full spectrum (0.50-0.75 THz) was obtained at each reflection angle. The results indicate that the checkerboard samples’ reflection angle for each frequency has a good consistency with the calculations. Since the detector was obstructing the incoming beam, the measurable angle range begins at 23 degrees from normal incidence. This issue limits the ability to obtain the maximum scattering pattern of the strip design samples. At the final section of the thesis, the VO2-based MM, was fabricated and measured. VO2 layer was used in this structure, due to its phase-changing characteristic. It undergoes a reversible transformation from an insulator to a metallic state at about 68◦C. The initial concept was to design and fabricate the MM just entirely out of 1-bit (60 µm) unit cells. After that, using a CW laser pump and a digital micromirror (DMD), convert this 1-bit into the 0-bit unit cell by modifying the conductivity of the VO2 layer of each individual unit cell. Using this idea, it was possible to develop a tunable digital MM. However, the CST simulation results demonstrated that the proposed MM is ineffective due to the significant amplitude difference between the 0 and 1-bit unit cells. Due to that, using the VO2-based unit cells (0 and 1-bit) the striped and checkerboarded pattern of MMs was designed and fabricated. The VO2 conductivity was modulated using a CW 915 nm laser beam. The measurement results show that VO2-based MM can be used for THz beam splitting at room temperature, and the scattering pattern weakens when the laser is illuminated over the sample, causing the VO2 layer to turn conductive. CST Studio Suite simulation software was used to determine the unit cells’ geometrical dimensions, amplitudes, and phases. The analytical calculations were performed using MATLAB. The investigated MM has the potential to be used in THz communications.