Fabrication of terahertz metamaterial with high refractive index using high-resolution electrohydrodynamic jet printing

Abstract

Metamaterial is an engineered material whose electromagnetic properties can be determined by the unit structure. Lithography is one of main methods to fabricate metamaterials for fine patterning which has limitations in large-area fabrication. We present a direct fabrication method for metamaterial using the electrohydrodynamic jet printing. An electrical pulse was controlled to make drop-on-demand operation, through which flexible high refractive-index metamaterial could be fabricated in the form of I-shaped silver electrodes with 10-mu m widths and 5-mu m gaps on polyimide substrate. The peak value of the refractive index was 18.4 at a frequency of around 0.48 THz.