On-Chip THz Dynamic Manipulation Based on Tunable Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons

As one of the key components of terahertz (THz) application systems, the on-chip THz wave dynamic device has attracted much attention. In this letter, we propose an efficient way to dynamically manipulate the amplitude of an on-chip THz wave based on tunable spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs). A composite transmission line composed of metallic corrugated strips and vanadium dioxide (VO2) components is proposed to support the tunable SSPPs. By applying the insulator-metal transition characteristics of the VO2 components, it is found that the dispersion of SSPPs supported by this structure can be manipulated, which leads to the ability to tune the propagation of the transmitted THz wave. Both the experimental and simulated results show that the THz wave from 0.22 THz to 0.28 THz can be tuned and switched with a minimum insertion loss of -5.5 dB and a maximum switch ratio of 36 dB. The concept of tunable SSPPs presented here has important potential for the development of integrated THz dynamic devices with overtemperature protection circuits for integrated chips.