Resonant transparency of a planar anapole metamaterial at terahertz frequencies

Abstract

Anapole metamaterials have attracted growing attention in recent years due to their unique nonradiating and nontrivial properties. Although anapole modes have been demonstrated in metamaterials with three-dimensional structures, the design and realization of planar anapole metamaterials in a wide frequency range is still a big challenge. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a planar anapole metamaterial consisting of dumbbell-shaped apertures on a stainless-steel sheet at terahertz frequencies. The planar metamaterial can generate a resonant transparency in the terahertz spectrum due to the excitation of the anapole mode. Particularly, the frequency of anapole-induced resonant transparency can be tuned easily in the range of 0.15–0.93 THz by simply varying one geometric parameter of the dumbbell apertures. We anticipate that the resonant transparency in planar anapole metamaterials can be potentially used in filters, sensors, or other photonic devices.