Pyroelectric metamaterial millimeter-wave detector

We present experimental demonstration of a multi-functional metamaterial absorber, which operates as an efficient detector of millimeter wave radiation at room temperature. Intimate integration of a pyroelectric crystal directly within the metamaterial unit cell enables an efficient large area sensing element made up of repeating unit cells that are nearly ten times smaller than the operational wavelength. An un-amplified intrinsic responsivity of 3.90V/W is demonstrated at 91.5 GHz, which is close to the peak of the spectral absorption at 97.8 GHz. Numerical full-wave electromagnetic simulations match well to experiments and clarify the underlying absorption mechanism, while thermal simulations permit optimization of the responsivity. The demonstrated results show that the monolithic pyroelectric metamaterial geometry well functions as a detector and represents an ideal device platform for realization of novel and compact room temperature millimeter wave sensing and imaging components.