Realization of Multifunctional Metamaterial Structure Based on the Combination of Vanadium Dioxide and Graphene

Abstract

Combining tunable properties and various functionalities into a single metamaterial structure has become a novel research hotspot and can be used to tackle great challenges. The multifunctional metamaterial structure that combines absorption, linear-to-circular (LTC) polarization conversion, filtering and switching functions into a single metamaterial device was designed and investigated in this study. The switching of different functions can be achieved based on the phase transition of vanadium dioxide (VO2) and change of graphene chemical potential. When VO2 is in a metal state, the multi-frequency absorption and LTC polarization conversion can be achieved with different chemical potentials. When VO2 is in the insulator state and the polarization angle of incident wave is 45°, the device can be used to select or isolate the incident waves with different polarization states in the frequency region of 1.2–1.8 THz. Furthermore, when the chemical potentials are 0.05 eV and 1.2 eV, the corresponding transmissions of the TE-polarized wave demonstrate the opposite results, realizing the switching functions in the frequency region of 0.88–1.34 THz. In the frequency region above 2 THz, the multi-frequency rejection filter can be achieved. The designed switchable multifunctional metamaterial device can be widely implemented in radar monitoring and communication systems.