Plasmon-induced transparency in metamaterials: Active near field coupling between bright superconducting and dark metallic mode resonators

Structured plasmonic metamaterial devices offer the design flexibility to be size scaled for operation across the electromagnetic spectrum and are extremely attractive for generating electromagnetically induced transparency and slow-light behaviors via coupling of bright and dark subwavelength resonators. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a thermally active superconductor-metal coupled resonator based hybrid terahertz metamaterial on a sapphire substrate that shows tunable transparency and slow light behavior as the metamaterial chip is cooled below the high-temperature superconducting phase transition temperature. This hybrid metamaterial opens up the avenues for designing micro-sized active circuitry with switching, modulation, and "slowing down terahertz light" capabilities. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.