UC Davis

Metamaterial absorbers are devices made from arrays of subwavelength structures used to manipulate electromagnetic radiation incident upon them and they are becoming increasingly important with the implementation of the internet of things and the ubiquity of sensors present in everyday life. This research presents experimental methods to measure the performance of micro and nano electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) produced by our research group. A series of simulations were performed using COMSOL, Ansys HFSS, and Python to provide predictions of their performance. An experimental LabVIEW setup is also presented to measure the performance of a plasmonic piezoelectric NEMS resonator, while various MEMS absorbers were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Various considerations are presented for the materials used in the production of these devices, and their application to use in the sensing of biological and gaseous systems is also discussed. The experimental measurements provided here confirm their potential application as low cost, high resolution, uncooled detectors.