Ziran Wu

Rapid and inexpensive fabrication of terahertz electromagnetic bandgap structures.

Modern rapid prototyping technologies are now capable of build resolutions that allow direct fabrication of photonic structures in the GHz and THz frequency regimes. To demonstrate this, we have fabricated several structures with 3D electromagnetic bandgaps in the 100-400 GHz range. Characterization of these structures via THz Time-domain Spectroscopy (THz-TDS) shows very good agreement with simulation, confirming the build accuracy of the approach. This rapid and inexpensive 3-D fabrication method may be very useful for a variety of potential THz applications.

Terahertz electromagnetic crystal waveguide fabricated by polymer jetting rapid prototyping

An all-dielectric THz waveguide has been designed, fabricated and characterized. The design is based on a hollow-core electromagnetic crystal waveguide, and the fabrication is implemented via polymer-jetting rapid prototyping. Measurements of the waveguide power loss factor show good agreement with simulation. As an initial example, a waveguide with propagation loss of 0.03 dB/mm at 105 GHz is demonstrated.

Terahertz Horn Antenna Based on Hollow-Core Electromagnetic Crystal (EMXT) Structure

An all-dielectric terahertz (THz) horn antenna based on hollow-core electromagnetic crystal structure is designed, fabricated and characterized. Simulation shows that the antenna works above 100 GHz, with better than 30 dB return loss and highly directional radiation pattern. Fabrication of the antenna is done using a THz polymer-jetting rapid prototyping technique. Characterization of the antenna is performed using a THz time-domain spectrometer. Measurement results of the far-field radiation patterns show good agreement with simulation results.

Control of the Metal-Insulator Transition in VO2 Epitaxial Film by Modifying Carrier Density

External controlling the phase transition behavior of vanadium dioxide is important to realize its practical applications as energy-efficient electronic devices. Because of its relatively high phase transition temperature of 68 °C, the central challenge for VO2-based electronics, lies in finding an energy efficient way, to modulate the phase transition in a reversible and reproducible manner. In this work, we report an experimental realization of p-n heterojunctions by growing VO2 film on p-type GaN substrate. By adding the bias voltage on the p-n junction, the metal-insulator transition behavior of VO2 film can be changed continuously. It is demonstrated that the phase transition of VO2 film is closely associated with the carrier distribution within the space charge region, which can be directly controlled by the bias voltage. Our findings offer novel opportunities for modulating the phase transition of VO2 film in a reversible way as well as extending the concept of electric-field modulation on other phase transition materials.

Terahertz Characterization of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube and Graphene On-Substrate Thin Films

In this paper, single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) thin films with thicknesses on the order of hundreds nanometers on glass substrates and a graphene thin film (2-3 layers) on a glass substrate are characterized via terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. The substrate permittivity is first characterized. The thin film is then treated as a surface boundary condition between the substrate and air. Using the uniform field approximation, the surface conductivities of these films are extracted. To improve accuracy, precise thickness of the sample substrate is calculated through an iteration process in both dielectric constant extraction and surface conductivity extraction. Uncertainty analysis of the measured thin-film properties is performed. The SWNT results show consistent surface conductivities for samples on different substrates and with different film thicknesses. The measured graphene terahertz conductivity is comparable to the values reported in the literature at dc and optical frequency. This characterization method has been successfully applied as a means to evaluate metallic content of SWNT samples to verify a metallic SWNT removing process using high-power microwave irradiation.

Mechanical Damage Detection in Polymer Tiles by THz Radiation

Today the ultrasonic inspection technique is probably the most popular method for nondestructive evaluation and structural health monitoring. However, ultrasonic waves are not very effective in detecting internal defects in some materials such as ceramic foam tiles used in the thermal protection system (TPS) of the space shuttle, thick polymer composites, and polymer tiles used in various applications. Ultrasonic energy is attenuated very fast in these materials. On the other hand the electromagnetic radiation in THz (1000 GHz) frequency range can penetrate deep inside these materials. Its wavelength is small enough to detect internal defects. To understand the limits of structural damage detection capability of THz electromagnetic radiation or T-ray, mechanical damage in polymer tiles is introduced by drilling holes. Then T-ray is passed through the damaged and defect-free tiles. The received signal strength is found to be affected differently by the internal defect as the frequency changes. Experimental observations are justified from the model predictions. The model takes into account the interaction between the T-ray of finite width and the tile containing the internal defect.

Terahertz characterization of multi-walled carbon nanotube films

Multi-walled carbon nanotube films are characterized using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Both transmission and reflection experiments are performed in order to measure both the complex refractive index and the wave impedance. This method allows simultaneous extraction of both the permittivity (e=e′−ie″) and permeability (μ=μ′−iμ″) without any assumptions. Experimental results are obtained from 50 to 370 GHz and compared well with the microwave data (8–50 GHz) of the same sample measured using a vector network analyzer. The measured complex permittivity can be fitted with a Drude–Lorentz model in the 8–370 GHz frequency range.

THz Thermal Radiation Enhancement Using an Electromagnetic Crystal

Thermal radiation in the terahertz (THz) range only occupies a tiny portion of the whole blackbody power spectrum at room temperature. We demonstrate that a thermal radiator, which is constructed from an electromagnetic (EM) crystal, can be designed so that its photon density of states (DOS) is enhanced in the THz frequency range. We also demonstrate, as a consequence, that this source may lead to large enhancements of the radiated power over the values associated with normal blackbody radiation at those frequencies. The THz thermal radiation enhancement effects of various EM crystals, including both silicon and tungsten woodpile structures and a cubic photonic cavity (CPC) array, are explored. The DOS of the woodpile structures and the CPC array are calculated, and their thermal radiation intensities are predicted numerically. These simulations show that the radiated power can be enhanced by a factor of 11.8 around 364 GHz and 2.6 around 406 GHz, respectively, for the silicon and tungsten woodpile structures in comparison to the normal blackbody radiation values at those frequencies. It is also shown that an enhancement factor of more than 100 may be obtained by using the CPC array. A silicon woodpile EM crystal with a band gap around 200 GHz was designed and fabricated. The transmission property of this woodpile structure was verified using the THz time-domain spectroscopy (TDS). Thermal emissions from the fabricated silicon woodpile and a control blackbody sample were measured. Enhancements of the woodpile source radiation over the blackbody were observed at several frequencies which are consistent with the theoretical predictions.

Hollow-core electromagnetic band gap (EBG) waveguide fabricated by rapid prototyping for low-loss terahertz guiding

An all-dielectric THz waveguide has been designed, fabricated and characterized. The design is based on electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structures, and the fabrication is implemented with polymer-jetting rapid prototyping method. Measurement results show good consistency with design simulations. As an initial example, a waveguide with low propagation loss of 0.03 dB/mm at 105 GHz is demonstrated.

THz thermal radiation enhancement using electromagnetic crystals

In this paper, a new idea on thermal radiation based THz source utilizing EM crystals (also known as electromagnetic band gap structures, or EBG) is introduced. Preliminary theoretical and experimental results are reported and give promising indications that carefully designed EM crystal thermal radiators may be useful in thermal imaging and identification applications and enable a new type of low cost and high performance THz source.