Andryieuski Andrei, Zhukovsky Sergei V, Lavrinenko Andrei V
Opt Express. 2014 Jun 16;22(12):14975-80. doi: 10.1364/OE.22.014975.
We numerically investigate the influence of roughness in layer thicknesses on the properties of hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs). We show that random spatial variation of dielectric and metal layer thicknesses, similar to what occurs during actual structure fabrication, leads to dramatic absorption increase compared to an ideal, smooth-layer HMM; the absorption increases more strongly when roughness is induced throughout the HMM rather than in its surface layer only. Hence, we have found that moderate surface roughness does not deteriorate the HMM functionality, at least in absorption-related applications, thus eliminating the challenge of ultrasmooth metal layer fabrication. More severe roughness can also prove useful in the design of inexpensive HMM-based broadband absorbers.
我们通过数值方法研究了层厚度粗糙度对双曲线型超材料（HMMs）特性的影响。我们表明，电介质和金属层厚度的随机空间变化，类似于实际结构制造过程中发生的情况，与理想的光滑层HMM相比，会导致吸收显著增加；当粗糙度在整个HMM中产生而不仅仅在其表面层中产生时，吸收增加得更强。因此，我们发现适度的表面粗糙度不会损害HMM的功能，至少在与吸收相关的应用中是这样，从而消除了制造超光滑金属层的挑战。更严重的粗糙度在基于HMM的廉价宽带吸收器设计中也可能证明是有用的。
