Wavelength-Selective Infrared Metasurface

Absorber for Multispectral

Thermal Detection
Volume 7, Number 6, December 2015

Joo-Yun Jung
Jihye Lee
Dae-Geun Choi
Jun-Hyuk Choi
Jun-Ho Jeong
Eung-Sug Lee
Dean P. Neikirk

DOI: 10.1109/JPHOT.2015.2504975
1943-0655 Ó 2015 IEEE
IEEE Photonics Journal Metasurface Absorber for Thermal Detection

Wavelength-Selective Infrared Metasurface

Absorber for Multispectral
Thermal Detection
Joo-Yun Jung,1 Jihye Lee,1 Dae-Geun Choi,1 Jun-Hyuk Choi,1
Jun-Ho Jeong,1 Eung-Sug Lee,1 and Dean P. Neikirk2
1
Department of Nano Manufacturing Technology, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials,
Daejeon 305-343, Korea
2
Microelectronics Research Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1024 USA

DOI: 10.1109/JPHOT.2015.2504975
1943-0655 Ó 2015 IEEE. Translations and content mining are permitted for academic research only.
Personal use is also permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

Manuscript received October 15, 2015; revised November 28, 2015; accepted November 30, 2015.
Date of publication December 4, 2015; date of current version December 15, 2015. This work was
supported by the Center for Advanced Meta-Materials (CAMM) funded by the Ministry of Science,
ICT and Future Planning as Global Frontier Project (CAMM-No. 2014M3A6B3063707) and the Basic
Science Research Program (2011-0028585) funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea
(NRF). This work was also supported by the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM)
under research Grant (NK188E). Corresponding authors: J.-Y. Jung and D. P. Neikirk (e-mail:
[email protected]; [email protected]).

Abstract: A wavelength-selective metasurface absorber suitable for use in multispectral

microbolometer focal plane arrays in the long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) region is theo-
retically and experimentally investigated. We show that a thin metal metasurface, which
is characterized by effective surface impedance, as an absorbing layer can be integrated
with an asymmetric Fabry–Pérot cavity to construct a wavelength-selective perfect ab-
sorber. The absorbed infrared energy is mainly dissipated in a thin metal metasurface, in
contrast to a multilayer metamaterial absorber. The calculated and experimental spectral
responses of the metasurface absorbers show excellent wavelength-selective narrow-
band absorption to allow multispectral imaging in LWIR.

Index Terms: Metamaterials, subwavelength structures, thermal infrared (IR) detectors.

1. Introduction
Uncooled infrared microbolometer focal plane arrays have been used in low-cost infrared ther-
mal imaging systems for many applications such as night vision, surveillance, thermography,
and firefighting. The absorption of incident infrared radiation in long wavelength infrared (LWIR)
microbolometers causes an increase in the temperature of the thermally isolated bolometric
layer, which is then converted into electrical signals. In order to enhance the absorption of inci-
dent radiation, conventional LWIR microbolometers normally use a broadband Salisbury screen
absorber, which consists of a single thin resistive absorbing layer placed a quarter-wavelength
in front of a metal mirror layer. The development of multispectral microbolometers, which are
capable of allowing better recognition and discrimination of objects compared to conventional
microbolometers, is highly desirable [1]. For multispectral response, wavelength-selective nar-
rowband absorption in the LWIR band is necessary. Several other approaches for producing a
wavelength-selective microbolometer absorber, such as antenna-coupled microbolometers [2],

Vol. 7, No. 6, December 2015 6804210

IEEE Photonics Journal Metasurface Absorber for Thermal Detection

Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of a single unit of a wavelength-selective metasurface absorber. (b) Equivalent
transmission line.

modified Fabry-Perot cavity absorber [3], [4], plasmonic structure [5], and microbolometers with
a metamaterial absorber [6]–[9], have been presented. Particularly, the spectral response of a
metamaterial absorber, which consists of a sub-wavelength-sized patterned metal array on
top of a continuous metal layer separated by a thin dielectric layer (much less than a quarter-
wavelength thick), can achieve excellent wavelength-selective narrowband absorption [10]–[15].
In contrast to the Salisbury screen absorber, the electromagnetic energy loss of a metamaterial
absorber is dissipated in either two-metal layers [14] or a lossy thin dielectric layer between the
metal layers [10], [12], [13] because the near-field coupling of metal-dielectric-metal layers deter-
mines the behavior of the resonant absorption. For a sensitive microbolometer performance, the
absorbing membranes of a microbolometer pixel, which mainly consist of a resistive absorbing
layer, bolometric layer, and a mechanical support layer, should be thermally isolated, i.e., the ab-
sorbing membranes are suspended over the metal mirror layer on the substrate. In such micro-
bolometers with a multilayer metamaterial absorber, the additional layers of the absorbing
membranes can increase the thermal mass of the microbolometer and result in decreased
response speed of the microbolometer.
Recently, metasurfaces, which are a kind of thin metamaterial structure comprising arrays of
sub-wavelength-sized resonators and can produce abrupt alteration of the phase and amplitude
of incident light at a metasurface, provide a novel solution for tailoring spectral response [16]–[21].
Thin metal or graphene metasurfaces with an appropriate effective surface impedance have been
used as a component of narrowband [22], broadband [23], or a tunable so-called perfect ab-
sorbers [24]–[27].
In this paper, a metasurface absorber designed using transmission line theory and an ef-
fective surface impedance approach is experimentally and theoretically investigated. An ana-
lytical solution to design an optimized surface impedance of the metasurface for achieving
near-perfect absorption by the metasurface absorber is also investigated. The optimized meta-
surface absorbers, which have multispectral thermal detection capability, produce wavelength-
selective narrowband absorption in the LWIR band. The infrared absorption energy absorbed by
the metasurface absorber is mainly dissipated in a single-layer thin (50 nm) metal metasurface,
in contrast to a multilayer metamaterial absorber. Finally, the conceptual structure of a wave-
length-selective microbolometer pixel using the proposed metasurface absorber is investigated.

2. Results and Discussion

The concept of constructing a wavelength-selective narrowband absorber is based on the inte-
gration of the metasurface and the classical Salisbury screen absorber forming an asymmetric
Fabry-Perot cavity. Fig. 1(a) shows a schematic of the wavelength-selective metasurface ab-
sorber, consisting of a thin silver (Ag) layer ðt1 Þ perforated with an array of cross patterned holes
as a metasurface, a germanium (Ge) dielectric spacer layer ðd Þ, and a bottom Ag mirror layer
ðt2 Þ. The metasurface, which has three design parameters, namely, the dimensions of the cross
holes (length l and width w ) and the array period ðaÞ, has both an electric dipole resonance as
a slot antenna and a bandpass transmittance spectral response. Since the thickness of the

Vol. 7, No. 6, December 2015 6804210

IEEE Photonics Journal Metasurface Absorber for Thermal Detection

Fig. 2. Ideal surface impedance of a metasurface for perfect absorption as a function of the effective
thickness of the dielectric layer ðn2 d =Þ.

metasurface is much smaller than the operation wavelength, the metasurface can be considered
as a resistive sheet with an effective surface impedance ðZseff Þ. The transmission line model of
the metasurface absorber is shown in Fig. 1(b). The input impedance Zin is defined as

jZseff Zd tanð
d d Þ
Zin ¼ (1)
Zseff þ jZd tanð
d d Þ

and the reflection coefficient is defined as

Zin  Z0
¼ (2)
Zin þ Z0
where Z0 and Zd ¼ Z0 =n2 are the characteristic impedances of free space and the dielectric
layer, n2 is the refractive index of the dielectric layer, and
d ¼ ð2n2 Þ= is the propagation
constant. The absorption of a metasurface absorber can be determined using

A ¼ 1  j j2 : (3)

From (1) and (2), the analytical solution for an ideal surface impedance of a metasurface re-
quired for the perfect absorption condition ð ¼ 0Þ can be determined using

jZ0 Zd tanð
d d Þ
Zseff ¼ : (4)
jZd tanð
d d Þ  Z0

The required ideal surface impedance of a metasurface for the perfect absorption as a func-
tion of the effective thickness of the dielectric layer ðn2 d =Þ is plotted in Fig. 2 using equation
(4). When the dielectric layer is a quarter-wavelength thick ð=4n2 Þ, i.e., the effective thickness
of the dielectric layer is 0.25, the effective surface impedance of the metasurface should be
purely resistive ðRseff ¼ 377
=gÞ to obtain perfect absorption. These required conditions are
equivalent to those of the classical Salisbury screen absorber. Depending on the effective thick-
ness of the dielectric layer, the effective surface impedance of a metasurface can be designed
using this analytical solution.
To calculate the absorption of the metasurface absorber shown in Fig. 1, the effective surface
impedance of metasurface is required. The numerical method and formulas to retrieve the effec-
tive electric surface conductivity ðeff
s ¼ 1=Zs Þ of thin metal and graphene metasurfaces are
eff

adopted to calculate the effective surface impedance of the metasurface [18], [24], [28]. Normal
incidence of electromagnetic waves on the electric metasurface in the asymmetric dielectric

Vol. 7, No. 6, December 2015 6804210

IEEE Photonics Journal Metasurface Absorber for Thermal Detection

Fig. 3. (a) Retrieved effective surface impedance of the metasurface. (b) Simulated magnitude of
electric field and current distribution on top of the metasurface at resonance wavelength.

layers is considered in this situation. The effective surface conductivity of a metasurface can be
expressed as [24]

2 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
s Z0 ¼
eff n1 n2  ðn1 þ n2 Þ (5)
S21

where n1 and n2 are the refractive indices of the free space and Ge layer, respectively. The
S21-parameter represents the transmission coefficient for a wave coming from free space ðn1 Þ.
The S21-parameter is simulated using a commercial numerical software HFSS. The normal inci-
dent plane wave with the electric field polarization along the x-direction excites a single unit of
metasurface with a periodic boundary condition in the x-y plane. The dielectric Ge layer is al-
most lossless and non-dispersive in the LWIR band and is assumed to have n2 ¼ 4 [29]. The
complex dielectric constant of the bulk Ag layer in the LWIR band is described by the Drude
model with the plasma frequency !p ¼ 1:37  1016 rad/s and a damping constant y ¼
2:74  1013 rad/s [30]. The damping constant of the thin Ag metal metasurface ðt1 Þ is higher
than that of bulk Ag metal due to the surface scattering and grain boundary effects in thin metal
layer [11], [31]. Simulated spectral responses with three times the damping constant of bulk Ag
provide the best agreement with the measured spectral responses, and so that value is used for
the simulation. The simulated metasurface has design parameters of a ¼ 2:0 m, l ¼ 1:6 m,
w ¼ 0:5 m, and t1 ¼ 50 nm. The retrieved effective surface impedance of the metasurface
using (5) is shown in Fig. 3(a), and it clearly shows a resonant response around a wavelength of
10 m. The effective surface impedance is purely resistive ðRseff ¼ 395
=gÞ at the resonance
wavelength of 10.03 m. To further clarify the resonant response of the retrieved effective sur-
face impedance, the simulated electric field and current distribution on top of the metasurface at
the resonance wavelength is also shown in Fig. 3(b). For the x-direction polarization, the longitu-
dinal rectangular hole along the polarization direction can be considered as a slot antenna. The
interaction between the slot antenna and the electromagnetic wave results in a concentrated
electric field around the edge of the center cross hole and strong current flow around cross hole,
which demonstrates a strong electric dipole resonance. Therefore, the resonant response of the
retrieved effective surface impedance is due to the electric dipole resonance.
To achieve near-unity absorption for the metasurface with effective surface resistance
Rseff ¼ 395
=g, which is similar to Z0 , at the wavelength of 10 m, the absorption of the meta-
surface absorber with a quarter-wavelength-thick Ge spacer layer ðd ¼ 0:625 mÞ on the per-
fect electric conductor (PEC) mirror layer is calculated using transmission line theory. Fig. 4
shows a comparison between the calculated absorption spectral response (black solid) and the
simulated spectral response (red dashed), obtained using numerical software HFSS, for a

Vol. 7, No. 6, December 2015 6804210

IEEE Photonics Journal Metasurface Absorber for Thermal Detection

Fig. 4. (a) Calculated (black solid) and simulated (red dashed) absorption spectral responses of a
wavelength-selective metasurface absorber. (b) Simulated absorption spectral responses depen-
dence on incident polarization and incident angle.

metasurface absorber with a Ag metal mirror layer instead of a PEC. The result of the calculated
spectral response is in excellent agreement with the result of the simulated spectral response
and shows excellent wavelength-selective near-unity absorption (99.9%), whose infrared energy
is dissipated as ohmic loss in the thin metal metasurface. The simulated integrated power ab-
sorption dissipation caused by the thin metal metasurface and the Ag mirror layer are 96.3%
and 3.6%, respectively. Since the effective surface impedance of the metasurface changes rap-
idly, the bandwidth of the metasurface absorber is narrow enough to allow multispectral imaging
in the LWIR band. Additional simulation results shown in Fig. 4(b) show that the spectral re-
sponses of metasurface absorber for both TE and TM modes are identical and the optical prop-
erties of metasurface absorber depend to some extent on the incidence angle. As the incidence
angle increases, the resonance peak shifts to shorter wavelength. However, from the perspec-
tive of IR microbolometers focal plane arrays used in an imaging system, the absorption at nor-
mal incidence is dominant due to the relatively low NA lens (i.e., relatively high f-number)
usually used in microbolometer imaging systems.
Fig. 5(a) shows the calculated multispectral responses for three different wavelength-selective
metasurface absorbers, which have a common Ge spacer layer thickness d of 0.6 m and me-
tasurface thickness t1 of 50 nm. The analytical solution (4) provides the ideal effective surface
impedances of each metasurface for the perfect absorption depending on the effective thickness
of the dielectric layer ðn2 d =Þ. The resonance wavelength of the metasurface absorber can be
selected through tailoring the dimensions of the metasurface. When the effective thickness of
the dielectric layer is 0.242 ( ¼ 9:9 m, d ¼ 0:6 m, and n2 ¼ 4), the ideal effective surface im-
pedance for perfect absorption should be 363:62  69:28j
=g. However, the retrieved effective
surface impedance of the metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 2 m, l ¼ 1:45 m, and w ¼
0:35 m is 245:41  29:73j
=g at a wavelength of 9.9 m, as shown in Fig. 5(b). The differ-
ence between the ideal and retrieved cases of surface impedance at a wavelength of 9.9 m
implies that the metasurface absorber only exhibits 95.83% absorption (Fig. 5(a), black solid) in-
stead of 100%. For the metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 2 m, l ¼ 1:7 m, and w ¼ 0:4 m,
the retrieved effective surface impedance at a wavelength of 10.83 m, as shown in Fig. 5(c), is
247:06  174:02j
=g, which is similar to the ideal effective surface impedance ð247:87 
178:78j
=gÞ of the metasurface for perfect absorption when the effective thickness of the di-
electric layer is 0.22 ( ¼ 10:83 m, d ¼ 0:6 m, and n2 ¼ 4). The retrieved effective surface
impedance of the metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 2:2 m, l ¼ 1:9 m, and w ¼ 0:4 m at a
wavelength of 12.05 m, as shown in Fig. 5(d), is 139:12  169:61j
=g, which is also similar to
the ideal effective surface impedance ð137:04  181:27j
=gÞ of the metasurface for perfect ab-
sorption when the effective thickness of the dielectric layer is 0.199 ( ¼ 12:05 m, d ¼ 0:6 m,

Vol. 7, No. 6, December 2015 6804210

IEEE Photonics Journal Metasurface Absorber for Thermal Detection

Fig. 5. (a) Calculated spectral responses of three different wavelength-selective metasurface absorbers
with a common Ge spacer layer thickness ðd ¼ 0:6 mÞ and metasurface thickness ðt1 ¼ 50 nmÞ.
Black solid curve: metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 2 m, l ¼ 1:45 m, and w ¼ 0:35 m; red
dashed curve: metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 2 m, l ¼ 1:7 m, and w ¼ 0:4 m; blue dotted
curve: metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 2:2 m, l ¼ 1:9 m, and w ¼ 0:4 m. (b) Retrieved effec-
tive surface impedance of metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 2 m, l ¼ 1:45 m, and w ¼ 0:35 m
(245:41  29:73j
=g at wavelength 9.9 m). (c) Retrieved effective surface impedance of metasur-
face with dimensions of a ¼ 2 m, l ¼ 1:7 m, and w ¼ 0:4 m (247:06  174:02j
=g at wave-
length 10.83 m). (d) Retrieved effective surface impedance of metasurface with dimensions of
a ¼ 2:2 m, l ¼ 1:9 m, and w ¼ 0:4 m (139:12  169:61j
=g at wavelength 12.05 m).

and n2 ¼ 4). Therefore, both metasurface absorbers achieve near-unity absorption, as shown in
Fig. 5(a).
E-beam lithography and e-beam evaporator deposition processes were used to fabricate the
metasurface absorber, starting with the deposition of 10/150 nm of Cr/Ag (mirror layer) on a sili-
con substrate, followed by the deposition of 600 nm of Ge (spacer layer) on the Ag mirror. After
the e-beam lithography process, metal layer sequence of 3 nm Cr and 50 nm Ag was deposited.
Finally, the lift-off process was used to form cross patterned metal. Fig. 6(b)–(d) show SEM im-
ages of the three different fabricated absorbers, whose dimensions are corresponding to those
of the calculated absorbers as shown in Fig. 5. To characterize the spectral responses of the
fabricated absorber, an FTIR microscope (Bruker Hyperion 3000) in reflectance mode at 4 cm−1
resolution was used to measure the spectral responses of the fabricated absorber after calibrat-
ing with a Ag mirror. Fig. 6(a) shows the measured spectral responses of the fabricated ab-
sorbers. Each of the wavelength-selective absorbers has an absorption peak at a wavelength of
9.4 m with 89.4% (black solid), wavelength 10.54 m with 97.57% (red dotted), and wave-
length 11.84 m with 93.25% (blue dashed). The small peaks at a wavelength of around 8 m
might be due to losses in the evaporated Ge layer. The results of the measured spectral re-
sponses are in good agreement with the results of the calculated spectral responses and show
that this concept of the metasurface absorber is applicable to the microbolometer pixel.

Vol. 7, No. 6, December 2015 6804210

IEEE Photonics Journal Metasurface Absorber for Thermal Detection

Fig. 6. (a) Measured spectral responses of three different wavelength-selective metasurface absorbers
with a common Ge spacer layer thickness ðd ¼ 0:6 mÞ and metasurface thickness ðt1 ¼ 50 nmÞ.
Black solid curve: metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 2 m, l ¼ 1:45 m, and w ¼ 0:35 m; red
dashed curve: metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 2 m, l ¼ 1:7 m, and w ¼ 0:4 m; blue dotted
curve: metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 2:2 m, l ¼ 1:9 m, and w ¼ 0:4 m. (b) SEM images of
the fabricated metasurface absorbers corresponding to black solid (left), red dashed (middle), and blue
dotted curve (right). Scale bar is 1 m.

As stated previously, thermally isolated absorbing membranes of a conventional microbol-

ometer pixel mainly consist of a resistive absorbing layer, a temperature sensitive bolometric
layer, and a mechanical support layer. Through the idea of our proposed metasurface absorber,
the thin metal metasurface is able to be the resistive absorbing layer in the absorbing mem-
branes of wavelength-selective microbolometer pixel. In a thermally isolated microbolometer
structure the lossless Ge spacer layer would be replaced by the vacuum layer. The conceptual
structure of the wavelength-selective microbolometer pixel, which is similar to that of the tradi-
tional amorphous silicon microbolometer pixel [32] except for the resistive absorbing layer, as
shown in Fig. 7(a), is composed of suspended absorbing membranes consisting of an amor-
phous silicon (a-Si) bolometric and mechanical support layer ðt2 Þ below the thin metal metasur-
face, air gap distance ðd Þ, and metal mirror layer. The dielectric a-Si layer is almost lossless
and non-dispersive in the LWIR band and the refractive index of a-Si is assumed to be 3.42 [29].
To demonstrate the possibility of multispectral microbolometer focal plane arrays, the simulated
spectral responses of three different conceptual structures of a wavelength-selective microbol-
ometer pixel (i.e., structures have different wavelength selectivity), which have a common air
gap distance d of 2 m, a-Si thickness t2 of 0.1 m, and metasurface thickness t1 of 50 nm, are
shown in Fig. 7(b). Since the resonance wavelength of the metasurface is strongly influenced
by the dielectric layer below the metasurface, the dimensions of the metasurface on the thin
layer of amorphous silicon and the vacuum layer have to be adjusted. The dimensions of the
metasurface for a peak wavelength around 9.15 m (black solid) are a ¼ 4 m, l ¼ 2:4 m, and

Vol. 7, No. 6, December 2015 6804210

IEEE Photonics Journal Metasurface Absorber for Thermal Detection

Fig. 7. (a) Schematic of the conceptual structure of a wavelength-selective microbolometer pixel based
on a metasurface absorber. (b) Simulated spectral responses of three different wavelength-selective
microbolometer pixels with a common air gap distance ðd ¼ 2 mÞ, metasurface thickness
ðt1 ¼ 50 nmÞ, and a-Si thickness ðt2 ¼ 0:1 mÞ. Black solid curve: metasurface with dimensions of
a ¼ 4 m, l ¼ 2:4 m, and w ¼ 0:3 m; red dashed curve: metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 4 m,
l ¼ 2:7 m, and w ¼ 0:25 m; blue dotted curve: metasurface with dimensions of a ¼ 4 m,
l ¼ 3:1 m, and w ¼ 0:2 m.

w ¼ 0:3 m; the dimensions of the metasurface for a peak wavelength around 10.4 m (red
dotted) are a ¼ 4 m, l ¼ 2:7 m, and w ¼ 0:25 m; the dimensions of the metasurface for a
peak wavelength around 12.15 m (blue dashed) are a ¼ 4 m, l ¼ 3:1 m, and w ¼ 0:2 m.
Achievement of near-unity absorption of the three different pixels proves that this conceptual
structure of a wavelength-selective microbolometer pixel can be an excellent candidate for multi-
spectral microbolometer focal plane arrays. In contrast to the assumption of infinite periodicity
used in the simulations, a pixel of a microbolometer would contain a finite array of unit cells. It
has been shown that such array truncation of a metasurface in LWIR band causes the reso-
nance wavelength shifts to the shorter wavelength with decreasing array size [33]. To counter-
act the effect of truncation array, the modified array of metasurface unit cells was applied [34].
When the pixel size of microbolometers with a metamaterial absorber is larger than the device
operating wavelength, the metamaterial absorber produced excellent absorption [9]. Therefore,
the size of pixel containing a finite array of unit cells for our conceptual structure should be
larger than the device operating wavelength (14 m), which is comparable with current micro-
bolometer pixel size (sub-20 m).

3. Conclusion
Wavelength-selective metasurface absorbers in the LWIR region are designed to be applicable
to the structure of a multispectral microbolometer pixel. A single layer (50 nm) of a thin metal
metasurface as an absorbing layer, which mainly dissipates the infrared absorption energy, is
characterized through an effective surface impedance. The fabricated metasurface absorbers
experimentally show efficient narrowband wavelength-selective absorption in the LWIR, and
three-color spectral responses using different dimensions of the metasurface have been demon-
strated. Therefore, the conceptual structure of a wavelength-selective microbolometer pixel

Vol. 7, No. 6, December 2015 6804210

IEEE Photonics Journal Metasurface Absorber for Thermal Detection

using our proposed metasurface absorber can be an excellent candidate for multispectral micro-
bolometer focal plane arrays.

References
[1] J. J. Talghader, A. S. Gawarikar, and R. P. Shea, “Spectral selectivity in infrared thermal detection,” Light Sci. Appl.,
vol. 1, no. 8, p. e24, Aug. 2012.
[2] S.-W. Han, J.-W. Kim, Y.-S. Sohn, and D. P. Neikirk, “Design of infrared wavelength-selective microbolometers
using planar multimode detectors,” Electron. Lett., vol. 40, no. 22, pp. 1410–1411, Oct. 2004.
[3] Y. Wang, B. J. Potter, and J. J. Talghader, “Coupled absorption filters for thermal detectors,” Opt. Lett., vol. 31, no. 13,
pp. 1945–1947, Jul. 2006.
[4] J.-Y. Jung, J. Y. Park, S. Han, A. S. Weling, and D. P. Neikirk, “Wavelength-selective infrared Salisbury screen
absorber,” Appl. Opt., vol. 53, no. 11, pp. 2431–2436, Apr. 2014.
[5] S. Ogawa, K. Okada, N. Fukushima, and M. Kimata, “Wavelength selective uncooled infrared sensor by plasmonics,”
Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 100, no. 2, Jan. 2012, Art. ID 021111.
[6] T. Maier and H. Brückl, “Wavelength-tunable microbolometers with metamaterial absorbers,” Opt. Lett., vol. 34, no. 19,
pp. 3012–3014, Oct. 2009.
[7] T. Maier and H. Brueckl, “Multispectral microbolometers for the midinfrared,” Opt. Lett., vol. 35, no. 22, pp. 3766–
3768, Nov. 2010.
[8] K. Du, Q. Li, W. Zhang, Y. Yang, and M. Qiu, “Wavelength and thermal distribution selectable microbolometers
based on metamaterial absorbers,” IEEE Photon. J., vol. 7, no. 3, Jun. 2015, Art. ID 6800908.
[9] A. Tittl et al., “A switchable mid-infrared plasmonic perfect absorber with multispectral thermal imaging capability,”
Adv. Mater., vol. 27, no. 31, pp. 4597–4603, Aug. 2015.
[10] N. Landy, S. Sajuyigbe, J. Mock, D. Smith, and W. Padilla, “Perfect metamaterial absorber,” Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 100,
no. 20, May 2008, Art. ID 207402.
[11] N. Liu, M. Mesch, T. Weiss, M. Hentschel, and H. Giessen, “Infrared perfect absorber and its application as plasmonic
sensor,” Nano Lett., vol. 10, no. 7, pp. 2342–2348, Jul. 2010.
[12] X. Liu, T. Starr, A. F. Starr, and W. J. Padilla, “Infrared spatial and frequency selective metamaterial with near-unity
absorbance,” Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 104, no. 20, May 2010, Art. ID 207403.
[13] C. Hu, X. Li, Q. Feng, X. N. Chen, and X. Luo, “Investigation on the role of the dielectric loss in metamaterial
absorber,” Opt. Exp., vol. 18, no. 7, pp. 6598–6603, Mar. 2010.
[14] J. Hao et al., “High performance optical absorber based on a plasmonic metamaterial,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 96,
no. 25, Jun. 2010, Art. ID 251104.
[15] Y. Chen, J. Dai, M. Yan, and M. Qiu, “Metal-insulator-metal plasmonic absorbers: Influence of lattice,” Opt. Exp.,
vol. 22, no. 25, pp. 30807–30814, Dec. 2014.
[16] A. V. Kildishev, A. Boltasseva, and V. M. Shalaev, “Planar photonics with metasurfaces,” Science, vol. 339, no. 6125,
Mar. 2013, Art. ID 1232009.
[17] N. Yu and F. Capasso, “Flat optics with designer metasurfaces,” Nature Mater., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 139–150, Jan. 2014.
[18] P. Tassin, T. Koschny, and C. M. Soukoulis, “Effective material parameter retrieval for thin sheets: Theory and appli-
cation to graphene, thin silver films, and single-layer metamaterials,” Physica B Condensed Matter, vol. 407, no. 20,
pp. 4062–4065, Oct. 2012.
[19] M. Unlu et al., “Switchable scattering meta-surfaces for broadband terahertz modulation,” Sci. Rep., vol. 4, Jul. 2014,
Art. ID 5708.
[20] X. Ni, A. V. Kildishev, and V. M. Shalaev, “Metasurface holograms for visible light,” Nature Commun., vol. 4, Nov. 2013,
Art. ID 2807.
[21] N. Meinzer, W. L. Barnes, and I. R. Hooper, “Plasmonic meta-atoms and metasurfaces,” Nature Photon., vol. 8,
no. 12, pp. 889–898, Nov. 2014.
[22] M. Pu et al., “Design principles for infrared wide-angle perfect absorber based on plasmonic structure,” Opt. Exp.,
vol. 19, no. 18, pp. 17413–17420, Aug. 2011.
[23] Q. Feng, M. Pu, C. Hu, and X. Luo, “Engineering the dispersion of metamaterial surface for broadband infrared
absorption,” Opt. Lett., vol. 37, no. 11, pp. 2133–2135, Jun. 2012.
[24] A. Andryieuski and A. V. Lavrinenko, “Graphene metamaterials based tunable terahertz absorber: Effective surface
conductivity approach,” Opt. Exp., vol. 21, no. 7, pp. 9144–9155, Apr. 2013.
[25] Z. Wang et al., “A circuit method to integrate metamaterial and graphene in absorber design,” Opt. Commun.,
vol. 329, pp. 76–80, Oct. 2014.
[26] Y. Yao et al., “Electrically tunable metasurface perfect absorbers for ultrathin mid-infrared optical modulators,” Nano
Lett., vol. 14, no. 11, pp. 6526–6532, Nov. 2014.
[27] Y. Fan, N.-H. Shen, T. Koschny, and C. M. Soukoulis, “Tunable terahertz meta-surface with graphene cut-wires,”
ACS Photon., vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 151–156, Dec. 2015.
[28] B. Sensale-Rodriguez et al., “Broadband graphene terahertz modulators enabled by intraband transitions,” Nat.
Commun., vol. 3, Apr. 2012, Art. ID 780.
[29] E. D. Palik, Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids, vol. 1. New York, NY, USA: Academic, 1998.
[30] M. A. Ordal, R. J. Bell, R. Alexander, L. Long, and M. Querry, “Optical properties of fourteen metals in the infrared
and far infrared: Al, Co, Cu, Au, Fe, Pb, Mo, Ni, Pd, Pt, Ag, Ti, V, and W,” Appl. Opt., vol. 24, no. 24, pp. 4493–4499,
Dec. 1985.
[31] S. Zhang et al., “Demonstration of metal-dielectric negative-index metamaterials with improved performance at optical
frequencies,” J. Opt. Soc. Amer. B, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 434–438, Mar. 2006.

Vol. 7, No. 6, December 2015 6804210

IEEE Photonics Journal Metasurface Absorber for Thermal Detection

[32] J. Tissot, C. Trouilleau, B. Fieque, A. Crastes, and O. Legras, “Uncooled microbolometer detector: recent develop-
ments at ULIS,” Opto-Electron. Rev., vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 187–191, Jan. 2007.
[33] J. D'Archangel, E. Tucker, M. B. Raschke, and G. Boreman, “Array truncation effects in infrared frequency selective
surfaces,” Opt. Exp., vol. 22, no. 13, pp. 16645–16659, Jun. 2014.
[34] J. A. D'Archangel, E. Z. Tucker, and G. D. Boreman, “Spectral modification of array truncation effects in infrared
frequency selective surfaces,” Infrared Phys. Technol., vol. 71, pp. 285–288, Jul. 2015.

Vol. 7, No. 6, December 2015 6804210