Spatial terahertz wave modulators that can arbitrarily tailor the electromagnetic wavefront are in high demand in nondestructive inspections and high-capacity wireless communications. Here, we propose a liquid crystal integrated metadevice. It modulates the terahertz wave based on the adjustable electromagnetically induced transparency analog when spatially changing the environmental refractive index. The functions of the device can be arbitrarily programmed via photo-reorienting the directors of liquid crystals with a digital micromirror device-based exposing system. The thin liquid crystal layer can be further driven by an electric field, and thus the function can be rapidly switched. Amplitude modulation and the lens effect are demonstrated with modulation depths over 50% at 0.94 THz.

We demonstrate a tunable terahertz (THz) absorber based on an indium tin oxide (ITO) metamaterial. The upper ITO cross-shaped metasurface with different arm lengths is fabricated by direct femtosecond laser etching. The thickness of the middle dielectric layer is only 60 μm, which makes the absorber very transparent and flexible. The experimental results show that the THz resonant peaks have a high performance near 1 THz. By setting spacers of different thicknesses between the middle layer and the ITO mirror, a new type of tunable THz absorber is proposed. Its absorption peak frequency can be continuously adjusted from 0.92 to 1.04 THz between TE and TM polarization. This transparent THz metamaterial absorber is expected to be widely used in THz imaging, sensing, and biological detection.

In this Letter, we propose that the photopatterned liquid crystal (LC) can act as a broadband and efficient terahertz (THz) Bessel vortex beam (BVB) generator. The mechanism lies in the frequency-independent geometric phase modulation induced by the spatially variant LC directors. By adopting large birefringence LCs and optimizing the cell gap, the maximized mode conversion efficiency can be continuously adjusted in broadband. Furthermore, the LC patterns can be designed and fabricated at will, which enables the THz BVBs to carry various topological charges. Such a THz LC BVB generator may facilitate the advanced THz imaging and communication apparatus.

Overcoming chromatic aberrations is a vital concern in imaging systems in order to facilitate full-color and hyperspectral imaging. By contrast, large dispersion holds opportunities for spectroscopy and tomography. Combining both functions into a single component will significantly enhance its versatility. A strategy is proposed to delicately integrate two lenses with a static resonant phase and a switchable geometric phase separately. The former is a metasurface lens with a linear phase dispersion. The latter is composed of liquid crystals (LCs) with space-variant orientations with a phase profile that is frequency independent. By this means, a broadband achromatic focusing from 0.9 to 1.4 THz is revealed. When a saturated bias is applied on LCs, the geometric phase modulation vanishes, leaving only the resonant phase of the metalens. Correspondingly, the device changes from achromatic to dispersive. Furthermore, a metadeflector with tunable dispersion is demonstrated to verify the universality of the proposed method. Our work may pave a way toward active metaoptics, promoting various imaging applications.