Multiband terahertz metamaterial absorber

This paper reports the design of a multiband metamaterial (MM) absorber in the terahertz region. Theoretical and simulated results show that the absorber has four distinct and strong absorption points at 1.69, 2.76, 3.41 and 5.06 THz, which are consistent with 'fingerprints' of some explosive materials. The retrieved material parameters show that the impedance of MM could be tuned to match approximately the impedance of the free space to minimise the reflectance at absorption frequencies and large power loss exists at absorption frequencies. The distribution of the power loss indicates that the absorber is an excellent electromagnetic wave collector: the wave is first trapped and reinforced in certain specific locations and then consumed. This multiband absorber has applications in the detection of explosives and materials characterisation.