Low loss and magnetic field-tunable superconducting terahertz metamaterial.

Superconducting terahertz (THz) metamaterial (MM) made from niobium (Nb) film has been investigated using a continuous-wave THz spectroscopy. The quality factors of the resonance modes at 0.132 THz and 0.418 THz can be remarkably increased when the working temperature is below the superconducting transition temperature of Nb, indicating that the use of superconducting Nb is a possible way to achieve low loss performance of a THz MM. In addition, the tuning of superconducting THz MM by a magnetic field is also demonstrated, which offers an alternative tuning method apart from the existing electric, optical and thermal tuning methods. c 2010 Optical Society of America