Dynamic manipulation of strongly confined terahertz surface waves on meta-surfaces, Goubau lines and wire pairs

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Marco Rahm
• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 409503410

The project aims at the theoretical and experimental investigation ofthe electromagnetic properties of strongly confined plasmonicterahertz surface plasmon polaritons in hybrid metasurface/Goubau line and metasurface/wire-pair systems. In particular, the spatio-temporal and spatio-spectralcoupling and propagation properties of terahertz surface plasmons atthe interface between metasurfaces and Goubau lines or wire pairs will be studied.A further part of the project is concerned with the active, dynamicmanipulation of the spatio-spectral behavior of terahertz surfaceplasmon polartons on Goubau lines, wire pairs and the metasurfaces.For this purpose, the metasurfaces, Goubau lines and wire pairs will beembedded in semiconductor materials, such that the electromagneticproperties of the hybrid system, consisting of themetasurface/semiconductor and Goubau line/semiconductor or wire pair/semiconductorcompounds, respectively, can be tuned and modulated by electronicor optical stimuli. For the experimental investigation of theelectromagnetic behavior of surface plasmon polaritons in both, thepassive and the active systems, it is necessary to generate highpower terahertz radiation to achieve a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio.For this reason, an imaging terahertz near-field spectroscope forstrong terahertz electric fields will be set up that allows theexperimental study of the spatio-temporal and spatio-spectralbehavior of the surface plasmon polaritons.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants