A switchable and tunable multifunctional terahertz polarization converter based on a graphene metasurface

Abstract

We propose a switchable and tunable terahertz metasurface polarization converter based on graphene. The metasurface is composed of a bottom gold film, a lower SiO₂ layer, an intermediate N-type graphene layer, an upper SiO₂ layer, and a top layer of square graphene resonant rings. By using the CST Microwave Studio, we studied their polarization conversion properties. The results show that the metasurface enables a versatile range of functions, including x-to-y linear polarization conversion within the frequency range of 4.23–7 THz, the transformation of linearly polarized waves into right-hand circularly polarized and left-hand circularly polarized waves. Moreover, at 3.873 THz, the metasurface can exhibit circular dichroism (CD) with a high CD value of 0.7. Based on the effect, a strategy to detect three representative avian influenza viruses was proposed and tested, which implies that the metasurface can be applied in biosensing.