Plasmonic-induced optical transparency in the near-infrared and visible range with double split nanoring cavity

Synthesis and Surface Plasmonic Characterization of Asymmetric Au Split Nanorings

In this Letter, a rational and stepwise method for the solution-phase synthesis of asymmetric Au split nanorings by adopting Au nanoprisms as a template has been demonstrated. The selective chemical etching of Au nanoprism tips activated the surface reactivity of edges and led to the selective deposition of Pt at the periphery of Au nanoplates. By controlling the total amount of Pt on the edges, different degrees of split Au@Pt nanorings were obtained; the subsequent Au coating around the Au@Pt scaffold eventually resulted in asymmetric Au hexagonal split nanorings. Their surface plasmonic features as a function of split degrees were investigated, including straight nanorods, bent nanorods, split nanorings, and full nanorings. The electrical field focusing using single-particle surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy was evaluated under different polarization angles of the incident light for two different structures with the point gap and line gap between two arms.

Tunable plasmon-induced transparency in graphene metamaterials with ring-semiring pair coupling structures

In this paper, a tunable graphene metamaterial with a ring-semiring pair coupling structure was proposed to achieve the plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) effect at terahertz frequencies, and its high-sensitivity sensor performances were simulated. We change the resonant frequency of the PIT window by adjusting the Fermi energy of the graphene or the relative distance of the geometry parameters. When the refractive index of the dielectric inserted into the structure changes, the spectral transmission of the metamaterial structure changes simultaneously. Therefore, the results of this study provide a new, to the best of our knowledge, method for making adjustable light sensors.

Independently tunable electromagnetically induced transparency effect and dispersion in a multi-band terahertz metamaterial

In this article, we experimentally and numerically investigate a planar terahertz metamaterial (MM) geometry capable of exhibiting independently tunable multi-band electromagnetically induced transparency effect (EIT). The MM structure exhibits multi-band EIT effect due to the strong near field coupling between the bright mode of the cut-wire (CW) and dark modes of pair of asymmetric double C resonators (DCRs). The configuration allows us to independently tune the transparency windows which is challenging task in multiband EIT effect. The independent modulation is achieved by displacing one DCR with respect to the CW, while keeping the other asymmetric DCR fixed. We further examine steep dispersive behavior of the transmission spectra within the transparency windows and analyze slow light properties. A coupled harmonic oscillator based theoretical model is employed to elucidate as well as understand the experimental and numerical observations. The study can be highly significant in the development of multi-band slow light devices, buffers and modulators.

Fano resonances in symmetric plasmonic split-ring/ring dimer nanostructures

The optical properties of symmetric split-ring/ring dimer (SRRD) nanostructures composed of a small nanoring surrounded by an Ag splitting nanoring with a larger diameter are calculated theoretically. The apparent asymmetric Fano line shape in the spectra is related to fast switching of the bonding modes between the split-ring plasmon and ring dipole. The influence of the dimensions of the SRRD nanostructures on the spectral positions and intensity of Fano resonance is studied, and the asymmetric Fano line shape can be flexibly adjusted by varying the geometric parameters. In addition, relatively simple SRRD nanostructures have the same overall sensing figures of merit as conventional nanoparticles, thus rendering them suitable for high-performance optical sensors.

Plasmonically induced perfect absorption in graphene/metal system

The constructive interference of bright and dark plasmonic modes results in plasmon-induced absorption (PIA) effect. Here, we theoretically investigate PIA effect, which is realized by the constructive interference between a Fabry-Perot (F-P) resonance mode and a graphene quasi-guided mode. Numerical simulation reveals at least three advantages of our structure over previous ones. First, the extinction ratio can reach ~ 99.999%, resulting in the ultra-high figure of merit* (FOM*) as high as 10⁶. Second, the intensity of this pronounced PIA effect can be optimized by adjusting the coupling distance. Third, the resonance frequency can be easily tunable by tuning the graphene Fermi level. This system may have potential applications in dynamically optical switching and biochemical sensing.

Dynamically Tunable Plasmon-Induced Transparency in On-chip Graphene-Based Asymmetrical Nanocavity-Coupled Waveguide System

A graphene-based on-chip plasmonic nanostructure composed of a plasmonic bus waveguide side-coupled with a U-shaped and a rectangular nanocavities has been proposed and modeled by using the finite element method in this paper. The dynamic tunability of the plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) windows has been investigated. The results reveal that the PIT effects can be tuned via modifying the chemical potential of the nanocavities and plasmonic bus waveguide or by varying the geometrical parameters including the location and width of the rectangular nanocavity. Further, the proposed plasmonic nanostructure can be used as a plasmonic refractive index sensor with a sensing sensibility of 333.3 nm/refractive index unit (RIU) at the the PIT transmission peak. Slow light effect is also realized in the PIT system. The proposed nanostructure may pave a new way towards the realization of graphene-based on-chip integrated nanophotonic devices.

Method proposing a slow light ring resonator structure coupled with a metal-dielectric-metal waveguide system based on plasmonic induced transparency

We demonstrate the analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) plasmonic waveguide. Plasmonic induced transparency is a method similar to EIT. In this paper, a plasmonic MDM waveguide is proposed by using an ellipse shaped side-coupled ring resonator and simulated by finite difference time domain. Plasmonics as a new field of chip-scale technology is an interesting substrate, which is used to propose and numerically investigate a novel MDM structure. The aforementioned framework is a 2×2 plasmonic ring resonator, employing gold as a metal and polymethyl methacrylate as a dielectric. Simulations show that a transparent window is located at 1550 nm and signal wavelength is assumed to be 860 nm, which is the phenomenon of plasmonic induced transparency. The velocity of the plasmonic mode can be considerably slowed while propagating along the MDM bends. Our proposed configuration may thus be applied to storing and stopping light in plasmonic waveguide bends. This plasmonic waveguide system may find important applications for multichannel plasmonic filters, nano-scale optical switching, delay time devices, and slow-light devices in highly integrated optical circuits and networks. In comparison with our previous theoretical work based on circular shaped ring resonators, it is shown that ellipse shaped ring resonators demonstrate better specifications with a slow down factor estimated to be more than 30.

Fano resonance by dipole-hexapole coupling in a χ-shaped plasmonic nanostructure

We demonstrate that pronounced Fano resonance can be obtained by dipole-hexapole coupling in a χ-shaped plasmonic nanostructure. The confined local field in the vicinity of dipole-resonant nanorods excites and coherently couples to the hexapolar mode in the rod perpendicular to the polarization direction of the incident wave, leading to strong Fano resonance. By using the discrete dipole approximation, we numerically investigate the behavior of Fano resonance by dipole-hexapole coupling in the plasmonic nanostructure. We obtain the parameters relevant to Fano resonance by fitting the coupled oscillator model equation to the calculated extinction data and investigate their dependencies on the structural parameters. The results demonstrate the possibility of obtaining high-contrast Fano resonance with narrow features by using this plasmonic nanostructure, which has potential applications for highly sensitive biological sensing, low-loss metamaterials, and others.

Dual-mode electromagnetically induced transparency and slow light in a terahertz metamaterial

In this Letter, we construct a metamaterial with dual-mode electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-like behavior by introducing "bright atoms," "quasi-dark atoms," and "dark atoms" simultaneously. The dual-mode EIT-like behavior has been demonstrated both experimentally and theoretically in terahertz (THz) regime. At two EIT-like modes, slow light is also observed as two time-delayed wave packets, and the effective group refractive index can reach 10(2). Furthermore, stable dual-mode EIT-like behavior is verified in this metamaterial for a wide range of oblique incident angles. Our work provides a design approach to mimic dual-mode EIT, and such an approach may achieve potential applications on miniaturized and versatile THz devices.

Comparison of electromagnetically induced transparency between silver, gold, and aluminum metamaterials at visible wavelengths

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-like effects in silver, gold, and aluminum metamaterials consisting of dipole resonators and quadrupole resonators were demonstrated at visible wavelengths. Optical characteristics of the metamaterials could be controlled by the gap distance between the two resonators. EIT-like effects were observed at wavelengths between 603 and 789 nm, 654 and 834 nm, and 462 and 693 nm for the silver, gold, and aluminum EIT metamaterials, respectively. At wavelengths longer than around 650 nm, the silver metamaterials had better EIT-like features. At wavelengths shorter than around 650 nm, on the other hand, the aluminum metamaterials showed promising EIT-like results.

Multiple magnetic mode-based Fano resonance in split-ring resonator/disk nanocavities

Plasmonic Fano resonance, enabled by the weak interaction between a bright super-radiant and a subradiant resonance mode, not only is fundamentally interesting, but also exhibits potential applications ranging from extraordinary optical transmission to biosensing. Here, we demonstrate strong Fano resonances in split-ring resonators/disk (SRR/D) nanocavities. The high-order magnetic modes are observed in SRRs by polarization-resolved transmission spectroscopy. When a disk is centered within the SRRs, multiple high-order magnetic modes are coupled to a broad electric dipole mode of SRR/D, leading to significant Fano resonance spectral features in near-IR regime. The strength and line shape of the Fano resonances are tuned through varying the SRR split-angle and interparticle distance between SRR and disk. Finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) simulations are conducted to understand the coupling mechanism, and the results show good agreement with experimental data. Furthermore, the coupled structure gives a sensitivity of ∼282 nm/RIU with a figure of merit ∼4.

A novel planar metamaterial design for electromagnetically induced transparency and slow light

A novel planar plasmonic metamaterial for electromagnetically induced transparency and slow light characteristic is presented in this paper, which consists of nanoring and nanorod compound structures. Two bright modes in the metamaterial are induced by the electric dipole resonance inside nanoring and nanorod, respectively. The coupling between two bright modes introduces transparency window and large group index. By adjusting the geometric parameters of metamaterial structure, the transmittance of EIT window at 385 THz is about 60%, and the corresponding group index and Q factor can reach up to 1.2 × 10³ and 97, respectively, which has an important application in slow-light device, active plasmonic switch, SERS and optical sensing.

Hybridization induced transparency in composites of metamaterials and atomic media

We report hybridization induced transparency (HIT) in a composite medium consisting of a metamaterial and a dielectric. We develop an analytic model that explains HIT by coherent coupling between the hybridized local fields of the metamaterial and the dielectric or an atomic system in general. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we evidence HIT in a split ring resonator metamaterial that is coupled to α-lactose monohydrate. Both, the analytic model and numerical calculations confirm and explain the experimental observations. HIT can be considered as a hybrid analogue to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and plasmon-induced transparency (PIT).