Photothermal direct writing of metallic microstructure for frequency selective surface at terahertz frequencies

Maskless photothermal direct writing technique was investigated to fabricate planar microscale metallic structures. In this technique, we use a tightly focused nanosecond pulsed infrared light to heat the metallic thin film on substrate. With sufficient volumic power density, the metal inside a “hot spot” could be removed from substrate. This technique benefits from not only the enhanced optical absorption, thanks to the surface plasmon resonance of metallic thin film, but also the reduced thermal conductivity, due to the frequent boundary scattering of phonons inside the thin film. To verify the performance of our direct writing technique, a cross-slot periodic array is scribed in gold thin film on silica substrate. Such a pattern can serve as a frequency selective surface at terahertz, which has many applications in terahertz radio system, e. g. rejecting thermal noise before terahertz receiver or serving as reflectors in Fabry-Perot etalon for astronomy spectroscopy.