Tunable polarization sensitive absorber made of graphene-based hyperbolic metamaterials

Theoretically, the absorption properties of a hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) slab constructed from graphene-dielectric multilayers are investigated using the transfer matrix method. The effective medium approximation reveals that the graphene-based HMM slab is an anisotropic and homogeneous medium. It is shown that the absorption of the slab depend on the polarization and incidence angle due to the strong anisotropy of the HMMs. The results revealed that the complete absorption is only possible for the TM-polarized waves in a broad region of wavelength. It is found that the region of total absorption can be controlled and tuned using some controlling parameters such as incidence angle, the orientation of the optical axis of the HMM medium and the chemical potential of the graphene monolayers. Finally, the intensity distribution of a TM-polarized Gaussian beam is simulated which verifies the strong absorption of the waves inside the HMM slab. This absorber may have potential applications in the design of tunable filters, polarizers, detectors, photovoltaic devices and so on.