Terahertz metamaterial with broadband and low-dispersion high refractive index

A broadband and low-dispersion high refractive index (HRI) metamaterial formed by symmetrically etching two identical metasurfaces on both sides of a dielectric slab has been numerically and experimentally demonstrated in the terahertz region. The unit cell of the metasurface is a Jerusalem cross surrounded by a square metal ring, in which there are two magnetic resonances and one electric resonance. The proposed metamaterial simultaneously possesses high effective permittivity and permeability in broadband frequencies, since the multiple resonances result in a significant bandwidth expansion of a HRI. The simulation results reveal that the refractive index of the proposed metamaterial reaches up to 27 in the frequency range of 0.39–0.65 THz, and the relative bandwidth is about 44%. Furthermore, the fluctuation of the refractive index in this frequency band is less than 6%, showing a good low-dispersion characteristic. We also fabricated a sample to verify this HRI property. Experimental results are in good agreement with numerical simulations. This broadband HRI metamaterial is desirable in many fields, such as in high-resolution imaging and optical communications.