Investigation of the loss performance of the spoof surface plasmon polariton waveguides at 1 THz band

Abstract

The terahertz imaging systems bring the advantage of both optical and microwave frequency spectrums, thanks to the invasion capability of the terahertz waves thru different media providing high-resolution imaging at real terahertz frequencies such as 1 THz. Nevertheless, the state-of-the-art terahertz technologies employ bulky optical system design approach. In consequence, the state-of-the-art terahertz systems are not suitable for high mobility terahertz imaging applications. On the other hand, the state-of-the-art terahertz integrated circuits (TICs) suffer from high attenuation due to conventional terahertz waveguides, and hence, a novel high-performance terahertz waveguide is needed. In this paper, we present the investigation of loss performance of Spoof Surface Plasmon Polariton (SSPP) waveguides (WGs) that operate at 1 THz, which will enable the demonstration of compact and high-performance TICs. We present a relationship between the corrugation dimensions, radiation, and metallic losses and guided wavenumber for the first time. The proposed SSPP WGs are able to transmit the terahertz wave in expense of an insertion loss of -4.93 dB thru 250 mu m at 1 THz.