C-shaped conducting polymer metalenses fabricated on polyester substrates for focusing terahertz light

Compact size, flexibility, and the possibility to integrate different kinds of sensors in operating systems are some of the possible broadways in the evolution of electronic and photonic devices. As a rule, wearable electronics-related gadgets attract exceptional attention due to their ability to detect different parameters close to the human body. In this work, we extend the research scope of wearable textile devices, focusing on the issues of wearable photonics by offering metamaterial-based lenses fabricated directly onto flexible polyester substrates. Using several different solution-based conductive polymers as core material and laser ablation techniques for processing, we have fabricated metalenses for 0.3 THz operation in a relatively simple and low-cost way. Spectral and focusing properties of the metalenses were investigated experimentally and theoretically. We observed that all conductive polymer-based metalenses demonstrate strong focusing capabilities, achieving maximum focal spot intensities up to 1.6 times higher than the incident radiation and full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 0.61 λ . Moreover, the effective performance of a deformed metasurface up to a curvature value of 0.2 mm −1 is achieved while still keeping an acceptable focusing performance. Our findings demonstrate that conductive polymers placed on polyester are suitable for the flexible fabrication of metalenses. The design and suggested technological routes are expected to serve further developments in smart textile and wearable photonics devices.