Active Control of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency Analog in Terahertz MEMS Metamaterial

Abstract

1 wileyonlinelibrary.com C o m m u n iC a io n and their possible applications. The ultimate form of active manipulation of EIT phenomenon will be when all three primary parameters are controlled independently. The independent control of individual resonators demands for the controllability at unit cell level, and conventional approaches such as optical pumping of photoconductive elements or thermally controlled superconductor are restricted to provide only global control. Recently, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based tunable metamaterials have been reported to achieve controllability at unit cell level, along with the added advantage of being electrically controlled, miniaturized size and enhanced electrooptic performance. The versatility of MEMS design has enabled active manipulation of numerous THz properties such as magnetic resonance,[19–22] electrical resonance,[23–25] anisotropy,[26] broadband response,[27] isotropic resonance switching[28] multiresonance switching,[29–31] and coupling strength between resonators.[32] The enhanced controllability and direct integration of MEMS actuators into metamaterial unit cell geometry is an ideal fit for the realization of selective control of coupled mode resonators. In this Communication, reconfigurable metamaterial with independently controlled bright and dark mode resonators is proposed for advanced manipulation of the classical analog of EIT and slow light effects in THz spectral region. The active control of bright mode resonator enables modulation of EIT intensity, while the tuning of dark mode resonance causes the EIT peak to tune in frequency. Furthermore, simultaneous switching of bright and dark mode resonators results in dynamic switching of the system between coupled and uncoupled states. The proposed approach of selective reconfiguration can be scaled for multiresonator systems, which can be coupled either through inductive, capacitive, or conductive means. The metamaterial consists of 80 × 80 periodic array of cut wire resonator (CWR) with closely placed split ring resonators (SRRs), as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. The periodicity of unit cell is 100 μm along both axial directions. The CWR has length, lC = 60 μm and width, wC = 5 μm, respectively. The SRRs have a base length, bS = 30 μm, side length, lS = 20 μm, and split gap, gS = 4 μm. The SRRs are placed at a distance of S = 2 μm from the CWR. When the polarization of the excitation field is along the CWR arm, the dipole mode resonance of the CWR will be the bright mode and the inductive-capacitive (LC) mode of SRR resonance acts as the dark mode. Thus for the incident THz polarization, the direct excitation of the bright mode induces image charges on the nearby SRRs through nearfield inductive coupling, thereby exciting the LC resonance of the SRRs. These bright-dark resonances have contrasting line widths with identical resonance frequencies and under a strong coupling regime they experience an EIT-type of interference that gives rise to a sharp transmission peak. Thus, through Active Control of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency Analog in Terahertz MEMS Metamaterial