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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Coherent control of metamaterials

Sangeeta Chakrabarti, S. Anantha Ramakrishna, Harshawardhan Wanare

Published Aug 17, 2009• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We theoretically demonstrate the possibility of dynamically controlling the response of metamaterials at optical frequencies using the well known phenomenon of coherent control. Our results predict a variety of effects ranging from dramatic reduction of losses associated with the resonant response of metamaterials to switchable ultraslow to superluminal propagation of pulses governed by the magnetic field of the incident wave. These effects, generic to all metamaterials having a resonant response, involve embedding the metamaterial in resonant dispersive coherent atomic/molecular media. These effects may be utilized for narrow band switching applications and detectors for radiation below predetermined cut-off frequencies.

DOI
10.1117/12.825969

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We theoretically demonstrate the possibility of dynamically controlling the response of metamaterials at optical frequencies using the well known phenomenon of coherent control. Our results predict a variety of effects ranging from dramatic reduction of losses associated with the resonant response of metamaterials to switchable ultraslow to superluminal propagation of pulses governed by the magnetic field of the incident wave. These effects, generic to all metamaterials having a resonant response, involve embedding the metamaterial in resonant dispersive coherent atomic/molecular media. These effects may be utilized for narrow band switching applications and detectors for radiation below predetermined cut-off frequencies.
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This study demonstrates a metamaterial with two coupled split-ring resonators (SRR) can exhibit an effect reminiscent of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), a coherent process normally observed in three-level atomic media. The coupling between two SRR induces a frequency splitting in the spectral response of the metamaterial, opening up a narrow transmission band in the centre of the absorption line. The obtained reduction in group velocity together with the low absorption is useful for a variety of slow-light applications, without the need for the extreme cooling or the large magnetic fields that are typically required for EIT in atomic systems.
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