Switching Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in Reconfigurable Terahertz Metamaterials

A design of switching electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) reconfigurable metamaterials in terahertz (THz) regime is demonstrated theoretically. The unit cell of the device which is patterned on SOI (silicon-on-insulator) substrate consists of a pair of fixed metallic split ring resonators (SRRs) and a movable metallic wire which locates in the middle of the two SRRs. The movement of the metallic wire on a suspended movable silicon wire is achieved by using a micromachined actuator which can be actuated with the applied voltage. By shifting the moveable silicon wire, we observed the excitation and tuning of EIT reconfigurable metamaterials and a tunable group delay of the broad terahertz light. The results indicate that this work may point to potentials for the realization of tunable slow-light devices.