Investigation of microelectromechanical systems bimaterial sensors with metamaterial absorbers for terahertz imaging

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10 .1117/1.OE.53.9.097103 One attractive option to achieve real-time terahertz (THz) imaging is a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) bimaterial sensor with embedded metamaterial absorbers. We have demonstrated that metamaterial films can be designed using standard MEMS materials such as silicon oxide (SiOx ), silicon oxinitrate (SiOx Ny ), and aluminum (Al) to achieve nearly 100% resonant absorption matched to the illumination source, providing structural support, desired thermomechanical properties and access to external optical readout. The metamaterial structure absorbs the incident THz radiation and transfers the heat to bimaterial microcantilevers that are connected to the substrate, which acts as a heat sink via thermal insulating legs, allowing the overall structure to deform proportionally to the absorbed power. The amount of deformation can be probed by measuring the displacement of a laser beam reflected from the sensor’s metallic ground plane. Several sensor configurations have been designed, fabricated, and characterized to optimize responsivity and speed of operation and to minimize structural residual stress. Measured responsivity values as high as 1.2 deg ∕μW and time constants as low as 20 ms with detectable power on the order of 10 nW were obtained, indicating that the THz MEMS sensors have a great potential for real-time imaging. NCMR