Terahertz broadband near-perfect absorber with a single-layer coating on doped semiconductor

We demonstrate that a single-layer coating on a doped GaAs or Si substrate enables broadband antireflection and, hence, broadband perfect absorption in the terahertz frequency range. This broadband behavior can be generally expected when the substrate material has a Drude-type dispersion. Our mathematical analyses show that the reflection from Drude-type material may have an anomalously dispersive phase shift. The anomalous dispersion of the reflection phase is used to compensate for the normal dispersion of the accumulation phase in the single-layer coating film. Consequently, the antireflection conditions are satisfied in a wide frequency range, and broadband antireflection is achieved. Thus, broadband perfect absorption is realized with only a single-layer coating film on the substrate. Our method provides a simple and efficient approach to achieving broadband perfect absorption, which is critical in many applications such as radar stealth techniques and solar cells.