We experimentally demonstrate for the first time an active all-optical ultrafast modulation of electromagnetically induced transparency-like effect in a hybrid device of sapphire/Si/metamaterial. From numerical simulations, it can be deducted that the tuning process is attributed to the coupling between the dark mode existing in split-ring resonators and the bright mode existing in cut wire resonators. The transmission amplitude modulation is accompanied by the slow-light effect. In addition, the ultrafast formation process is measured to be as fast as 2 ps. This work should make an important contribution to novel chip-scale photonic devices and terahertz communications.
We experimentally demonstrate for the first time an active all-optical ultrafast modulation of electromagnetically induced transparency-like effect in a hybrid device of sapphire/Si/metamaterial. From numerical simulations, it can be deducted that the tuning process is attributed to the coupling between the dark mode existing in split-ring resonators and the bright mode existing in cut wire resonators. The transmission amplitude modulation is accompanied by the slow-light effect. In addition, the ultrafast formation process is measured to be as fast as 2 ps. This work should make an important contribution to novel chip-scale photonic devices and terahertz communications.
Abstract Incorporating auxiliary all‐optical modulation speeds as optional response modes into a single metamaterial is a promising research route towards advanced terahertz (THz) applications ranging from spectroscopy and sensing to communications. Particularly, a plethora of dynamically tunable optical functionalities are determined by the resonant light‐matter interactions. Here, an electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) resonator stacked with two traditional semiconductor films, namely silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge), is experimentally demonstrated. A giant switching feature of the EIT window with a peak at 0.65 THz occurs when the Si or Ge film is excited by ultrafast optical pulses, allowing for an optically tunable group delay of the THz wave packet. The recovery time for the slow and fast on‐off‐on switching cycles is 1.7 ns and 11 ps, respectively, which are mapped as the pump delay time of Si and Ge. Two optional response modes are integrated on the same device, where the modulation speed varies by three orders of magnitude, endowing the modulator more compact. This work provides new prospects for the design and construction of novel chip‐scale THz devices based on EIT and their applications in areas of sophisticated optical buffering and active filtering.
Abstract Active control of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in metamaterials promises tremendous potential applications. However, previously reported strategies most require sensitive materials as well as additional experimental apparatus, which are inconvenient for on-chip operation and restrain their implementations in fully integrated design. We propose a low-loss all-dielectric metamaterial with orthogonal double bright modes, which shows a narrowband transparency window at 950.05 nm with a high Q -factor of 2111. Just by varying the incident light polarization angle, an on-to-off in-situ EIT modulation without changing Q -factor is perfectly achieved, and the modulation depth can be up to 99.7%. Additionally, optical control of group delay with up to 36.22 ps is also demonstrated. This work provides a simple route to design chip-scale devices with optically dynamic controllability and finds fascinating applications in low-loss active slow light devices, optical switch and sensitive bio-sensing.
We demonstrate and analyze the use of metamaterials featuring an analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in slow light technology. For most metamaterials, EIT-like effects suffer from intrinsic ohmic loss, and the metamaterial-based slow-light effect can only be tuned passively, which limits their application in slow light devices. We propose a hybrid metamaterial with a unit cell composed of a ring resonator formed from photoactive silicon (Si) and a rectangular bar formed from metallic silver (Ag). Based on an analogue of EIT in the designed hybrid metamaterial, we theoretically demonstrate an all-optical tunable slow-light effect in the telecommunication window. We successfully demonstrate the possibility of designing novel all-optical tunable chip-scale slow-light devices that could be used in optical buffering.
We theoretically investigate dynamical control of light slowing within the induced transparent window, e.g., in near-infrared frequencies, in electromagnetically induced transparent (EIT) metamaterials loaded by low-lossy graphene. Coupling with graphene enables distinctive optical responses of the "bright" and "dark" resonators in EIT metamaterials, rendering a switching of the transparent window and a modulation on light dispersion. Optical performance of the transparent window manifests continuous tuning as the graphene doping level changes. We show that the active modulation on optical properties of the transparent window enabled by low-lossy graphene is distinctive either by passively adjusting the interspacing between the building blocks of EIT metamaterials, or active tuning by high-lossy graphene. Furthermore, we report that the group refractive index can be in situ tuned dynamically over a broad range, e.g., ∼2 orders for near-infrared frequencies, together with absorption maintained at a level similar to that of the unloaded structure. Our study offers new possibilities towards chip-scale devices, such as active optical switching, filtering, and data storing.
Abstract The realization of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) on metamaterials has special properties, such as strong slow-light, frequency-selection and so on, which have allowed EIT to be widely used in the fields of slow-light, optical storages and filters. In this paper, a metamaterial with two pairs of split ring resonators and one cut-wire is designed to achieve dual-band EIT effect at 0.5–2.14 GHz and 0.4–2.10 GHz with independently tunable bandwidths of 1.64 GHz and 2.7 GHz, respectively. The coupled Lorentz model is adopted to principally study the coupling characteristics between dark and bright modes. It is shown that the coupling strength between the dark and bright modes could be modulated by the coupling distance, which make the dual-band transparent window could be independently modulated by only changing the coupling distance between the bright and dark mode. The group delay and energy storage are also simulated by setting the Gaussian pulse signal passing through the EIT structure. The results show that the group delay of the designed EIT structure is 16.9 times that of the same thickness of dielectric material. The manufactured metamaterial is tested in a microwave anechoic chamber. The experimental and theoretical results are well consistent. These results could be beneficial for the development of EIT research toward some up-and-coming novel slow-light, optical storage, sensor and optical filter applications.
We investigate the electrically tunable Electromagnetic induced transparency (EIT)-like effect of active metamaterial structures composed of a wire and a split ring resonator by the simulation, experiment, and temporal coupled-mode theory. It is illustrated that an EIT-like effect appears as a result of weak coupling between bright and dark resonators. Around the EIT-like peak frequency, the superradiant resonance mode of the bright resonator is highly suppressed by the subradiant resonance mode of the dark resonator, and high transmittance as well as large group delay is manifested. By integrating a varactor diode into the EIT structure and altering the bias voltage, the EIT-like effect can be dynamically tuned. As the bias voltage ranges from 0 V to 8 V, the EIT-like peak frequency exhibits a prominent blueshift of 0.22 GHz and the transmittance experiences a modulation with a modulation depth up to 98%. Using the temporal coupled-mode theory, the transmission spectrum of the EIT structure is predicted and the parameters of the resonator system are retrieved.