Fabrication of Terahertz Planar Metamaterials Using a Super-Fine Ink-Jet Printer

Abstract

Super-fine ink-jet (SIJ) printing technology is applied to the fabrication of terahertz metamaterials. A silver film is fabricated using an SIJ printer with silver paste ink, and it is confirmed that the film behaves as a good conductor in the terahertz frequency region. Then, basic terahertz metamaterials such as metal wire-grid structures and split-ring resonators are printed on high-resistivity silicon substrates. The terahertz responses of the printed samples agree with those expected from their structures. SIJ printing is one of the ideal methods for fabricating terahertz metamaterials owing to its rapidity, simplicity, flexibility, and sufficient accuracy. (C) 2010 The Japan Society of Applied Physics