IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TERAHERTZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 3, NO.
6, NOVEMBER 2013
Metamaterial-Inspired Bandpass Filters for Terahertz
Surface Waves on Goubau Lines
Ali K. Horestani, Member, IEEE, Withawat Withayachumnankul, Abdallah Chahadih, Abbas Ghaddar,
Mokhtar Zehar, Derek Abbott, Fellow, IEEE, Christophe Fumeaux, Senior Member, IEEE, and
Tahsin Akalin, Member, IEEE
(Invited Paper)
Abstract—This paper is focused on the application of split ring
resonators (SRRs) to the design of compact bandpass filters for
terahertz surface waves on single-wire waveguides, the so-called
planar Goubau lines (PGLs). Through equivalent circuit models,
electromagnetic simulations, and experiments, it is shown that,
while a pair of SRRs coupled to a PGL inhibits the propagation
of surface waves along the line, introducing a capacitive gap to
the PGL switches the bandstop behavior to a bandpass behavior.
In order to highlight the potential application of the proposed
structure to the design of practical higher order terahertz band-
pass filters, two types of compact bandpass filters are designed
and fabricated: 1) third-order periodic bandpass filters based on
SRR/gap-loaded PGL and 2) coupled-resonator bandpass filters.
It is shown that, while the frequency response of the both filter
types can be controlled by altering the physical dimensions of
the structure, a wider bandwidth can be achieved from the cou-
pled-resonator filters. The design concept and simulation results
are validated through experiments.
Index Terms—Bandpass filter, metamaterials, surface wave, ter-
ahertz Goubau line.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE terahertz band, loosely defined as the frequency range
between 0.1 and 10 THz, has been extensively investi-
gated for numerous potential applications in imaging, medical
diagnosis, security screening, chemical and biological sensing,
and communications [1]–[8]. Despite a wide range of potential
applications, numerous challenges have yet to be addressed for
further development of passive and active devices operating in
this spectral range.
Manuscript received July 25, 2013; revised October 01, 2013; accepted
October 01, 2013. Date of publication October 30, 2013; date of current
version November 22, 2013. This work was supported in part by the ANR
through Project TERADOT under Grant ANR-11-JS04-002-01. The work of
C. Fumeaux was supported by the ARC Future Fellowship funding scheme
under Grant FT100100585. The work of W. Withayachumnankul was sup-
ported by the ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship funding scheme under Grant
DP1095151.
A. K. Horestani is with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia, and also with
the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Tehran, Iran (e-mail:
akarami@eleceng.adelaide.edu.au).
W. Withayachumnankul, D. Abbott, and C. Fumeaux are with the School of
Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide,
SA 5005, Australia.
A. Chahadih, A. Ghaddar, M. Zehar, and T. Akalin are with the Institut
d’Electronique de Microelectronique et de Nanotechnologie IEMN, Villeneuve
d’Ascq 59652, France (e-mail: tahsin.akalin@iemn.univ-lille1.fr).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TTHZ.2013.2285556
2156-342X © 2013 IEEE
851
Among many passive structures, low-loss and low-disper-
sion waveguides are crucial in the terahertz regime to enhance
the efficiency of systems. Even though hollow waveguides and
two-conductor transmission lines such as coaxial cables and mi-
crostrip lines are efficient for low to moderate radio-frequency
operation, scaling these waveguides for terahertz applications
is not an efficient solution because of the finite conductivity of
metals at this higher frequency range [9]. On the other hand,
in spite of their high efficiency, conventional optical intercon-
nects such as optical fibers are bulky and cannot be readily inte-
grated into planar technologies [10], [11]. Surface electromag-
netic waves that propagate along the interface of a dielectric and
a conductor are one possible solution that has been proposed
for realization of high-speed on-chip interconnects, where thin
metal circuitry can be used for carrying both the optical signals
and electrical currents [10]. In particular, it was demonstrated by
Wang and Mittleman [12] that a bare Goubau-like single metal
wire carrying surface waves [13]–[16] can be used as an efficient
channel for terahertz waves with low attenuation and low dis-
persion. The planar version of such a waveguide, the so-called
planar Goubau line (PGL), has attracted increasing interest be-
cause of its compatibility with integrated circuit fabrication pro-
cesses [17]–[22].
In order to exploit the propagation of surface waves on a
single wire in real applications, particularly for future broad-
band terahertz communications, functional components such as
various types of filters are required. Different types of terahertz
filters based on frequency-selective surfaces, photonic crystals
[23]–[25], liquid crystals [26], or metamaterials [20], [27]–[30]
have been proposed. However, these filters are exclusively for
free-space terahertz waves. A bandstop filter based on a corru-
gated PGL has been studied [31]. It was shown that the struc-
ture provides a stopband for surface wave propagation. More
recently, an application of metamaterial resonators, more specif-
ically electrical LC (ELC) resonators, for filtering has been in-
vestigated [11]. A stopband in the transmission of guided sur-
face waves on a PGL was demonstrated numerically and exper-
imentally. In our recent investigation [32], it was demonstrated
through simulation that split-ring resonators (SRRs) can be used
for realization of bandpass filters for terahertz PGLs. It is worth
mentioning that SRRs and complementary SRRs have been ex-
tensively used in the microwave regime for designing bandpass
or bandstop filters in microstrip lines and coplanar waveguides
(CPWs) [33]–[36]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no
study prior to [32] has been conducted on bandpass structures
852 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TERAHERTZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 3, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2013

for terahertz surface waves. This work focuses on the design

of higher order bandpass filters with a controllable bandwidth
and improved frequency response for terahertz surface waves
on PGLs.
Throughout the paper, the operation principle for these tera-
hertz PGL bandpass filters is developed, and the effect of geo-
metric parameters on the frequency response of the proposed
filters is studied. Two different types of bandpass filters are real-
ized through parametric studies. The first type is based on a com-
bination between SRRs and a gap-loaded PGL, and the second
type involves coupled SRRs excited by open-ended PGLs. In
both cases, it is shown through simulations and experiments that
the filter response, in particular the bandwidth, can be conve-
niently controlled by altering the geometrical dimensions of the
structures.
This paper is organized as follows. The principle of first-order
Fig. 1. Layout of the proposed metamaterial-inspired bandpass structure for
bandstop and bandpass filters based on SRR-loaded PGL is dis- terahertz surface wave on the PGL. Note that the PGL is a single-wire structure
cussed in Section II, accompanied by circuit models developed with no ground plane or return current path.
for both bandpass and bandstop filters. Based on the operation
concept and circuit models, third-order periodic bandpass filters
based on SRR/gap-loaded PGLs are presented in Section III.
Bandpass filters based on coupled SRRs are then discussed in
Section IV. As a validation, prototypes for both types of the fil-
ters with geometrical variations have been fabricated and their
performance have been evaluated. Satisfactory agreement be-
tween simulation and measurement results has been achieved.
Finally, the main findings and principles of the study are sum-
marized in Section V.

II. PRINCIPLE OF BANDSTOP AND BANDPASS FILTERS FOR THE

TERAHERTZ GOUBAU LINE

In earlier work, Akalin et al. [17] have presented a high-effi-

ciency planar launching structure for surface waves on a PGL.
The structure in a form of a CPW with a tapered section effi-
ciently converts the CPW mode to the Goubau mode. In order
to demonstrate that the transmission is indeed through the ex-
cited PGL, and not due to the direct coupling between the two
launching sections, a gap was introduced on the PGL [17]. The
very low transmission level in the gap-loaded structure verified
that the transmission in the continuous PGL was not due to the
direct coupling between the launching sections. It was further
shown that a pair of ELC resonators that are electrically coupled
to a PGL prohibits surface wave propagation along the PGL at
resonance [11].
Here, we first demonstrate that a pair of SRRs that are mag-
netically coupled to a continuous PGL also creates a notch in
the transmission spectrum of the PGL. This transmission notch
can be interpreted as the spectrum where the SRR-loaded PGL
behaves as a one-dimensional (1-D) media with negative effec-
tive permeability. As will be shortly explained by an equivalent
circuit model, this bandstop behavior can be switched to a
bandpass behavior by introducing a series capacitive gap to the
SRR-loaded PGL [37]–[39].
The proposed bandpass structure, illustrated in Fig. 1, is
composed of a PGL loaded with a pair of SRRs and a series
capacitive gap. The PGL is excited through the CPW launching
sections. Snapshots of the propagation mode in the transverse
and longitudinal planes are depicted in Fig. 2. The figures show
Fig. 2. Snapshots of the (a) electric field and (b) magnetic field of the propaga-
tion mode in the transverse cross section. (c) Side-view snapshot of the electric
field in a section of the structure. The figures show a TM mode, where the longi-
tudinal E-field component is relatively small. Thus, the mode can be considered
to be quasi-TEM [11]. Therefore, the pair of single-ring SRRs can be placed in
close proximity to the PGL in order to maximize the magnetic coupling with
the PGL.
a TM mode, where the longitudinal E-field component is rela-
tively small. Thus, the mode can be considered as quasi-TEM
[11]. The fields are confined around the line and exponentially
decay in the transverse plane. Therefore, the pair of single-ring
SRRs can be placed in close proximity to the PGL in order to
maximize the magnetic coupling with the PGL.
In order to give the reader improved understanding of the
behavior of the structures, equivalent circuit models for the
SRR-loaded PGL with and without the series capacitive gap
are depicted in Fig. 3(a) and (b), respectively. As a first-order
approximation, all losses are neglected in these models. In
these equivalent circuits, represents the SRR’s equivalent
capacitance. The SRR’s equivalent inductance is described
with , which is magnetically coupled to the PGL’s equivalent
HORESTANI et al.: METAMATERIAL-INSPIRED BANDPASS FILTERS FOR THz SURFACE WAVES ON GOUBAU LINES
Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit models for the SRR-loaded and SRR/gap-loaded
PGL. (a) The model for the SRR-loaded PGL. (b) The model for the
SRR/gap-loaded PGL. (c), (d) Simplified versions of (a) and (b), respectively.
inductance through the mutual inductance . The series
capacitive gap on the PGL is modeled with . The equivalent
circuit models in Fig. 3(a) and (b) can be simplified to the
circuit models shown in Fig. 3(c) and (d), respectively [37].
From the simplified circuit model in Fig. 3(c), a notch in the
transmission response of the SRR-loaded PGL at the frequency
that nullifies the series admittance, or , is
expected. In contrast, the equivalent circuit model for the SRR/
gap-loaded PGL in Fig. 3(d) behaves as a bandpass circuit with a
transmission band, right below the SRRs’ resonance frequency,
where the total series impedance nulls.
The discussed design concept and circuit models are vali-
dated through full-wave 3-D electromagnetic simulations and
experimental investigations. The design process begins with
selecting a substrate with an appropriate thickness and rela-
tive permittivity to control the field confinement and prevent
substrate modes. The field confinement plays an important
role since surface wave characteristics are determined by the
extension of the electromagnetic field around the PGL. Exci-
tation of substrate modes can be avoided by increasing their
cutoff frequency through decreasing the substrate thickness and
relative permittivity [19]. Thus, in this study, a 250- m-thick
quartz crystal with a relative permittivity is chosen as
a substrate. The next step involves determining an appropriate
width for the PGL. An increase in the width of this metallic
strip leads to a decrease in the modal confinement, which
in turn results in a decrease in the conductor loss. In our present
designs, however, a decrease in the confinement also weakens
magnetic coupling between the PGL and the SRRs, owing
to the lowered magnetic flux density around the PGL. Thus,
as a tradeoff between reducing the PGL conductive loss and
achieving a strong coupling between the PGL and the SRRs, a
width of 5 m is used for the PGL in this study. The
Goubau line has a total length 2100 m, including the
50 m gap in its middle for the bandpass filter. These
given dimensions and substrate specifications are common to
all subsequent designs.
For the first-order filters presented in this section, the PGL is
loaded with a pair of SRRs with 160 m, 130 m,
10 m, 10 m, and 10 m. Fig. 4 depicts the
simulated transmission coefficients of the structure in three dif-
ferent configurations: a PGL loaded only with the series capac-
itive gap, a PGL loaded only with the pair of SRRs, and a PGL
853
Fig. 4. Simulated normalized transmission coefficients of the PGL in
three configurations: PGL loaded only with the series capacitive gap (black
dash–dotted line), PGL loaded only with the pair of SRRs (blue dotted line),
and PGL loaded with both series capacitive gap and the pair of SRRs (red solid
line). The transmission coefficients are normalized to that of a bare through
PGL. The linear scale adopted in the manuscript follows the convention of the
terahertz community.
Fig. 5. Image of the fabricated prototype of the SRR/gap-loaded PGL.
loaded with both series capacitive gap and the pair of SRRs.
Note that, since the insertion loss at each port involves both in-
sertion loss from the launching sections and the insertion loss
from the filter, in order to fairly validate the performance of the
filter, the impact of the launching sections must be excluded.
To this end, the transmission coefficients presented in Fig. 4
are normalized to that of the bare PGL. It is clear that, while
the propagation of terahertz waves along the SRR-loaded line
is inhibited at resonance around 180 GHz, the SRR/gap-loaded
PGL exhibits a bandpass behavior at around 170 GHz, below the
SRRs’ resonance frequency. Once again, the low normalized
transmission of the broken PGL emphasizes that transmission
with the bare PGL is not caused by direct coupling between the
CPW launchers. All of the simulated results are plotted for the
frequency band of 140–220 GHz to match the frequency limits
of the utilized measurement system. However, it can be shown
through simulation that, apart from harmonics, the structures do
not have any features at lower frequencies or higher frequencies
at least up to 300 GHz.
In order to validate the simulation results, a prototype of the
structure is fabricated and measured. Fig. 5 shows a microscope
854 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TERAHERTZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 3, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2013
Fig. 6. Comparison between the simulated and measured transmission coeffi-
cients for the bare PGL as well as those for the SRR/gap-loaded PGL.
Fig. 7. Layout of the third-order periodic bandpass filter based on the SRR/
gap-loaded PGL.
image of the fabricated prototype, realized with the same mate-
rials, geometry, and dimensions as those used in the simulated
structures. For the details on measurement setup employed in
this work, the reader is referred to the earlier article on PGLs,
by Akalin et al. [18]. Fig. 6 shows a direct comparison be-
tween the measured and simulated transmission coefficients for
the bare PGL as well as the SRR/gap-loaded PGL. The gen-
eral concept and corresponding simulation results are validated
through the satisfactory agreement between the simulation and
measurement. Small discrepancies can be ascribed to fabrica-
tion tolerances.
III. BANDPASS FILTERS BASED ON SRR/GAP-LOADED PGL
The main aim of this section is to highlight the potential of
the proposed SRR/gap-loaded PGL in the design of practical
terahertz bandpass filters with good in-band transmission and
out-of-band rejection, as well as a controllable center frequency
and bandwidth. To this end, a third-order periodic filter is de-
signed, and the concept is validated through electromagnetic
simulations and experiments.
Since controlling the center frequency of the filter can be
simply achieved by scaling the SRRs, the study is focused on
the impact of geometric parameters on the filter bandwidth. The
layout of the proposed periodic bandpass filter, excluding the
launching sections is illustrated in Fig. 7. The dimensions of the
launching sections as well as the width of the PGL are the same
as those of the structures of the previous section. Based on the
equivalent circuit model for the first-order filter in Fig. 3(d), as
Fig. 8. Simulated transmission coefficients of the third-order periodic filter for
four different values of SRR’s inter-ring space from 15 to 30 m in steps of
5 m.
shown analytically in the Appendix, the bandwidth of the filter
can be increased either by increasing the series gap capacitance
, or by decreasing the SRR’s equivalent capacitance
and/or inductance . Note that decreasing the SRR’s equiva-
lent inductance is not a viable option, as this can adversely af-
fect the coupling between the SRRs and the PGL, which in turn
significantly degrades the in-band transmission. On the other
hand, controlling the bandwidth via the series capacitance
becomes complicated from the fabrication point of view, owing
to required extremely small gap sizes . Thus, in the present
design, a series gap size is fixed at 10 m, and the filter
bandwidth is controlled through variation of the SRRs’ equiv-
alent capacitance, which can be achieved by tuning the SRR’s
inter-ring space . The other dimensions of the SRRs are as fol-
lows: 130 m, 120 m, 10 m, 20 m,
and the space between SRRs is 70 m.
Fig. 8 depicts the simulated transmission coefficients of the
filter for four different values of SRR’s inter-ring space from
15 to 30 m in steps of 5 m. The simulation results clearly
show that the designed third-order filter has a good level of
in-band transmission as well as substantial out-of-band rejec-
tion. The figure also shows that, as predicted, the filter’s band-
width can be controlled by tuning the SRR’s equivalent capac-
itance through tuning the SRR’s inter-ring space . The filter’s
3-dB bandwidth is increased from 18.5 GHz for 15 m
to 26.4 GHz for 30 m, which corresponds to a 42%
wider bandwidth. These third-order bandpass filters are then
fabricated and measured. Fig. 9 shows a good agreement be-
tween the simulated and measured transmission coefficients of
the filter for different values of the SRR’s inter-ring space . The
images of the filter prototypes are depicted in the insets. The fil-
ters are as compact as , where is the guided
wavelength at the filters’ center frequency.
IV. BANDPASS FILTERS BASED ON COUPLED SRRS
Here, the concept of coupled resonators [40]–[43] is demon-
strated for the design of bandpass filters for terahertz surface
waves on PGL. Different third-order coupled-resonator filters
are designed and experimentally validated. Importantly, it
will be shown that compared with the filters based on the
SRR/gap-loaded PGLs presented in the previous section, a
much wider bandwidth can be achieved with the proposed
coupled resonators bandpass filters.
HORESTANI et al.: METAMATERIAL-INSPIRED BANDPASS FILTERS FOR THz SURFACE WAVES ON GOUBAU LINES
Fig. 9. Comparison between the simulated and measured transmission coeffi-
cients of the third-order periodic filter for different values of SRR’s inter-ring
space. (a) 15 m. (b) 20 m. (c) 30 m. Photographs of the
fabricated prototypes are depicted in the insets.
Fig. 10. Layout of the third-order bandpass filter based on the coupled SRRs.
Note that SRRs are coupled to open-ended PGLs.
Fig. 10 illustrates the layout of the proposed filter, excluding
the CPW launching sections. The filter is composed of three
pairs of coupled double-ring SRRs that are excited by open
ends of the PGL. Thus, the terahertz surface waves on the PGL
are transmitted across the gap through these coupled SRRs at
855
Fig. 11. Comparison between simulated transmission coefficients of two cou-
pled-resonator bandpass filters with different geometric dimensions. The dimen-
sions of the first filter (red dashed line) are 180 m, 100 m,
20 m, 5 m, 20 m, and 15 m. A much wider
bandwidth and higher in-band transmission level is achieved in the second filter
(blue solid line) by changing the dimensions to 190 m, 5 m, and
10 m.
resonance. In this configuration, the filter’s in-band transmis-
sion level and bandwidth can be increased either by increasing
the PGL-to-SRR and SRR-to-SRR couplings or by increasing
the bandwidth of each resonator [40]–[42]. In order to achieve
widest bandwidth, in this work we exploit both methods.
For comparison, two coupled-SRR filters with different di-
mensions are designed on the same quartz substrate as in pre-
vious sections, with the identical CPW launching sections and
PGL width. The dimensions of the first filter are as follows:
180 m, 100 m, m, 5 m, 20 m,
and the space between SRRs is 15 m. In order to in-
crease the in-band transmission and bandwidth, in the second
filter the PGL-to-SRR coupling is increased by increasing the
longitudinal dimension of the SRRs to 190 m, while the
SRR-to-SRR coupling is increased by decreasing the space be-
tween the SRRs to 5 m. Furthermore, based on the re-
sults from the previous section, the bandwidth of the resonators
is increased by increasing the SRRs’ inter-ring space to 10 m.
Fig. 11 compares the simulated transmission coefficients of
the two filters. The simulation results show that the maximum
in-band transmission coefficient of the second filter is increased
to 0.92, compared with 0.82 for the first filter. More impor-
tantly, the filter bandwidth is increased from 25.3 to 37.8 GHz.
In order to validate the simulation results, prototypes of both fil-
ters have been fabricated and measured. Fig. 12 shows the mea-
sured transmission coefficients of the filters, which are in good
agreement with the simulated ones. The images of the filters
prototypes are depicted in the insets. The filters have the same
compact dimensions as the SRR/gap-loaded filters presented in
Section III . It is worth mentioning that the se-
lectivity of the filters can be improved by using substrates with
lower loss.
V. CONCLUSION
In summary, it has been demonstrated that the bandstop be-
havior of an SRR-loaded PGL can be switched to a bandpass
behavior by introducing a capacitive gap in the PGL. The con-
cept has been interpreted through equivalent circuit models, and
the simulation results have been validated through experiments.
Furthermore, the effect of different geometrical dimensions of
856 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TERAHERTZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 3, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2013

frequency . This value can be obtained from the reactance

of the resonator as

(2)

For the analysis of the effect of the SRR’s equivalent capac-

itance and inductance on the FBW of the SRR/gap-loaded
PGL, the above equation can be applied to the circuit model
of Fig. 3(d). Since the inductance of a unit cell is small, it
can be ignored in a good approximation and for the sake of
simplicity. Thus, the total series reactance of the unit cell is
given by

(3)

and the fractional bandwidth can be computed to be

(4)

This last equation shows that the FBW can be increased by de-
creasing either the equivalent capacitance
inductance
Fig. 12. Measured transmission coefficients of the fabricated coupled-res-
onator bandpass filters. (a) Prototype 1 with dimensions 180 m,
15 m, and 5 m. (b) Prototype 2 with dimensions 190 m,
5 m, and 10 m.
the structure on its frequency response, particularly the reso-
nance bandwidth, has been discussed, and design guidelines
have been developed. In order to highlight the potential appli-
cation of the proposed structure to the design of compact filters
for terahertz surface waves on PGL, two types of bandpass fil-
ters, one based on SRR/gap-loaded PGL, and the second one
based on coupled SRRs, have been designed. It has been shown
that, while the designed filters are compact (
for the third-order realizations, being the guided wavelength
at filters center frequency), they offer good in-band transmis-
sion and out-of-band rejection. More importantly, it has been
shown that the filters bandwidth can be conveniently controlled
over a large range, specifically in this design from 18.5 to 37.8
GHz, by altering the geometrical dimensions of the resonators.
The methodology and simulation results have been validated
through measurement of the filters’ fabricated prototypes.
APPENDIX
From filter theory, it is known that a bandpass filter composed
of series resonators has approximately a fractional bandwidth
FBW [40]
(1)
where is the fractional bandwidth of the filter, and is the
reactance slope of the filter’s resonator at the resonance circular
or the equivalent
of the SRR or by increasing the gap capacitance
.
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Ali K. Horestani (M’13) was born in Isfahan, Iran.
He received the B.Eng. degree from The University
of Shiraz, Shiraz, Iran, in 2003, and the M.Eng. de-
gree from The University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran,
Iran, in 2006, both in electrical and electronics en-
gineering. He is currently working toward the Ph.D.
degree in engineering at The University of Adelaide,
Adelaide, Australia, in the area of microwave and
millimeter-wave circuit design.
His research interests include MMIC design, mi-
crowave and millimeter devices and circuits, meta-
materials and their applications in planar circuits.
Mr. Horestani was the recipient of the 2012 Simon Rockliff Award for out-
standing mentoring of fellow students.
Withawat Withayachumnankul received the
B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees in electronic engineering
from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Lad-
krabang (KMITL), Bangkok, Thailand, in 2001 and
2003, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering (with special commendation) from the
University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia, in 2010.
From 2003 to 2012, he served as a Lecturer with
King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang
(KMITL), Bangkok, Thailand, with the Faculty of
Engineering. Since 2010, he has held an ARC Aus-
tralian Postdoctoral Fellowship with the University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Aus-
tralia. He is also an Associate with RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
His research interests include terahertz technology, metamaterials, plasmonics,
and optical antennas. He has authored and coauthored approximately 30 journal
publications. He has delivered invited talks at ETH Zürich, University of Mar-
burg, EPFL, IPHT (Germany), and Ibaraki University. He serves as a grant as-
sessor for Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Australian Research
Council (ARC).
Dr. Withayachumnankul was a recipient of the IEEE/LEOS Graduate Student
Fellowship (2008), the SPIE Scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering
(2008), the Australian Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholar-
ship (EIPRS; 2006–2008), and SPIE poster award (2007).
Abdallah Chahadih was born in Saida, Lebanon, in
1984. He received the M.S. degree in physics from
the University of Haute Alsace-Mulhouse, Alsace,
France, in 2008, and the Ph.D. degree in physics
from the University of Lille 1, Lille, France, in 2012.
During his doctoral work, his research activities
included fabrication of semiconducting and metal
nano-objects, optical properties of semiconductor
and metal nanoparticles, and light–matter interac-
tion. His current research interests include micro
and nano-fabrication of optoelectronic components,
metamaterials, transmission lines, filters, and antennas at THz frequencies.
858 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TERAHERTZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 3, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2013
Abbas Ghaddar was born in BorjRahal, Lebanon,
in 1980. He received the M.S. degree from the Uni-
versity of Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France, in 2005,
and the Ph.D. degrees from the University of Western
Brittany, Brest, France, in 2010, both in physics.
His graduate work focused on the static and
dynamic magnetization reversal in ferromagnetic
nanowires. During his postdoctoral work at the
Institute of Electronics and Microelectronics and
Nanotechnology (IEMN), University of Lille1, Lille,
France, he worked in the Terahertz manipulation of
electronic and spin states in InAs nanowire quantum dots coupling to a split
ring resonator.
Mokhtar Zehar is currently working toward the
Ph.D. degree at the Institute of Electronics and
Microelectronics and Nanotechnology, University of
Lille1, Lille, France.
He is currently involved with the study of
bull’s-eye antennas and of different structures based
on planar Goubau lines at terahertz frequencies.
Derek Abbott (M’85–SM’99–F’05) was born on
May 3, 1960, in South Kensington, London, U.K.
He received the B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in physics
from Loughborough University of Technology,
Loughborough, U.K., in 1982, and the Ph.D. degree
(with commendation) in electrical and electronic
engineering from The University of Adelaide,
Adelaide, Australia, in 1995, under K. Eshraghian
and B. R. Davis.
He has led a number of research programs in the
imaging arena, ranging from the optical to infrared
to millimeter wave to T-ray (terahertz gap) regimes. From 1978 to 1986, he
was with the GEC Hirst Research Centre, London, U.K., working in the area
of visible and infrared image sensors. His expertise also spans VLSI design,
optoelectronics, device physics, and noise, where he has worked with nMOS,
CMOS, SOS, CCD, GaAs, and vacuum microelectronic technologies. On mi-
gration to Australia, he was with Austek Microsystems, Technology Park, South
Australia, in 1986. Since 1987, he has been with The University of Adelaide,
Adelaide, Australia, where he is presently a Full Professor with the School of
Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He has appeared on national and inter-
national television and radio and has also received scientific reportage in New
Scientist, The Sciences, Scientific American, Nature, The New York Times, and
Sciences et Avenir. He holds over 800 publications/patents and has been an in-
vited speaker at over 120 institutions, including Princeton, NJ, MIT, MA, Santa
Fe Institute, NM, Los Alamos National Laboratories, NM, Cambridge, U.K.,
and EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. He has served as an editor and/or guest ed-
itor for a number of journals, including , Chaos, Smart Structures and Materials,
Journal of Optics B, Microelectronics Journal, Fluctuation Noise Letters, and
is currently on the editorial board of PLOSONE. He coedited Quantum Aspects
of Life (Imperial College Press, 2008) and coauthored Stochastic Resonance
(Cambridge University Press, 2008) and Terahertz Imaging for Biomedical Ap-
plications (Springer-Verlag, 2012). His research programs span a number of
areas of stochastics, game theory, photonics, biomedical engineering, and com-
putational neuroscience. His interests are in the area of multidisciplinary physics
and electronic engineering applied to complex systems.
Prof. Abbott is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP). He won the GEC
Bursary (1977), the Stephen Cole the Elder Prize (1998), the E.R.H. Tiekink
Memorial Award (2002), SPIE Scholarship Award for Optical Engineering and
Science (2003), the South Australian Tall Poppy Award for Science (2004)
and the Premier’s SA Great Award in Science and Technology for outstanding
contributions to South Australia (2004). He was awarded the Australian
Research Council Future Fellowship (2012) and the University of Adelaide
Award for Excellence for Higher Degree by Research Supervision (2013). He
has served as an editor and/or guest editor for a number of journals including
IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS and is currently on the editorial
boards of the PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE and the IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL.
He has served on a number of IEEE technical program committees, including
the IEEE APCCS and the IEEE GaAs IC Symposium.
Christophe Fumeaux (M’03–SM’09) received the
Diploma and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, in 1992 and 1997,
respectively.
From 1998 to 2000, he was a Postdoctoral Re-
searcher with the School of Optics, University of
Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA. In 2000, he
joined the Swiss Federal Office of Metrology, Bern,
Switzerland, as a Scientific Staff Member. From
2001 to 2008, he was a Research Associate and
Group Leader with the Laboratory for Electromag-
netic Fields and Microwave Electronics (IFH), ETH, Zurich, Switzerland.
Since 2008, he has been with The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia,
where he is currently a Professor with the School of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering. Since 2011, he has been a Future Fellow of the Australian
Research Council. His current main research interest concerns computational
electromagnetics, antenna engineering, THz technology and the application of
RF design principles to optical micro/nano-structures.
Prof. Fumeaux has served as an associate editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS
ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES from 2010 to 2013. He is cur-
rently an associate editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND
PROPAGATION. He was the recipient of the ETH Silver Medal of Excellence for
his doctoral dissertation. He was the corecipient of the 2004 Outstanding Paper
Award of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES), and
of the Best Symposium Paper Award at the 2012 Asia–Pacific International
Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility.
Tahsin Akalin (M’11) received the M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees in electronics from the University of Sci-
ences and Technologies, Lille, France, in 1999 and
2002, respectively.
After two years as Assistant Professor, he is now an
Associate Professor with Institute of Electronics and
Microelectronics and Nanotechnology, University of
Lille1, Lille, France, where he works on periodic and
random structures including metamaterials for prop-
agating, filtering, and radiating components. He is es-
pecially involved in the terahertz science (sources,
waveguides, antennas, and detectors). He works on electronic and optoelec-
tronic approaches for bridging the THz gap in passive and active devices. He
works particularly on beam-shaping of THz Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL)
and on THz photomixers. For this purpose, plasmonic structures are particularly
studied. He has invented original and efficient launchers at microwave and THz
frequencies of electromagnetic waves on a single strip, called Planar Goubau
Lines (PGL). One original application of this single metallic wire propagation
is the in THz near field microscopy and a second is for THz circuits (filters,
modulators’). He is also involved with controllable metamaterials at GHz and
THz frequencies. He works in a broad range of frequencies: microwave, THz,
IR and Optics. He is also developing passive and active plasmonic devices such
as plasmonic switches at Infrared and visible frequencies with semiconductor
nanowire arrays. He is the coauthor of more than 150 international communi-
cations with more than 30 invited talks in major conferences. He serves as a
reviewer for a number of journals.
Dr. Akalin is a member of the Optical Society of America and the B, D,
and J commissions of l’Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale (URSI). He
serves as a reviewer for many journals, including the IEEE TRANSACTIONS
ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, the IEEE TRANSACTIONS
ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, the IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL, the
PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, the IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS,
the IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, and
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS. He has served and
continues to serve as a TPC member for several international conferences.
He has organized and chaired several special sessions on THz and Infrared
Plasmonics and Metamaterials. He is also a coeditor of three special issues.