Planar terahertz metamaterials for strain sensing

We present two designs of planar terahertz metamaterials for strain sensing. A series of resonance frequency shifts are obtained with differing gap widths when the sensor is under mechanical compression. The subwavelength metamaterial structures exhibit a high-Q resonance resulting in a good sensitivity to mechanical deformation. Because of the penetrability and relatively high spatial resolution of terahertz waves, the proposed metamaterial-based sensors can be embedded in materials for structural sensing.