Flexible, low-loss and large area metamaterials with high Q value

To get flexible, low loss and large area metamaterials with high Q value for biosensing, the metamaterials structures with different micro/nanogaps on parylene free-standing thin film and silicon substrates were designed, simulated, fabricated, and characterized. Especially, the parylene shadow mask technology and electronic beam lithography (EBL) were combined and used to fabricate metamaterials with nanogap (200 nm). The results show strong electromagnetic responses at terahertz (THz) frequencies ranging from 0.2 THz to 2.5 THz and indicated that parylene is an ideal low loss substrate or coating material. The bio-stable, bio-compatible properties of parylene and “hot spot” plasmonic properties of metamaterials have great potential application such as THz biosensor to detect the cancer biomarker.