Localized slow light phenomenon in symmetry broken terahertz metamolecule made of conductively coupled dark resonators

Abstract

We demonstrate a localized slow light phenomenon in a symmetry broken metamolecule (MM) of conductively coupled dark resonators at a terahertz band. Under a dark-mode excitation condition, the single mode resonance becomes dual modes by breaking the uniaxial symmetry of MM. Thus, a transparency window exists in between dual modes. An interaction of V-shaped plasmonic antenna-type (VA) resonances results in a plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) when the asymmetric deviation is below 13 μm. A maximum 25.9 ps group-delay of incident THz pulse is observed at the transparency window. When the asymmetric deviation is beyond 13 μm, one excitation pathway switches from VA resonance to the inductor-capacitor (LC) resonance, which dominates the high-frequency side-mode. Then, the PIT effect transfers to the PIT-like behavior and the slow light phenomenon vanishes. The aforementioned discovery allows for a speed modulation of slow light via symmetry breaking in MM.