Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons for High-Efficiency Terahertz Power Combiner
Huali Zhu, Yong Zhang, Longfang Ye, Zhang Dang, Bo Zhang, Ruimin Xu, Bo Yan
Abstract
High-power terahertz solid-state sources play a key role in the advanced future information development, which directly determine the operating distance, anti-interference ability, and communication quality. Here, we propose a novel terahertz power combining technique by utilizing planar plasmonic metamaterials for high-isolated waveguide dividers and high-efficiency amplification. The natural stopband of metal nickel-based spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) has a perfect absorptivity for the terahertz wave, which is employed as a matched load of the waveguide T-junction divider to achieve high isolation between the output ports. Furthermore, the natural transmission mode of metal gold-based SSPPs is excited through a rectangular waveguide and amplified through a terahertz power amplifier by gold wire bonding, which is an effective manner for the SSPPs mode amplification in terahertz frequencies. Critically, the unique subwavelength field confinement and enhanced capabilities of the SSPPs may provide a solution for further breakthroughs in terahertz power combiners or even solid-state devices.