Enhanced sensing performance by the plasmonic analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency in active metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that gain-assisted plasmonic EIT-like metamaterials significantly improve sensing performance by amplifying the transparency peak, leading to higher sensitivity and figure of merit.

Contribution

It introduces an active metamaterial design that enhances plasmonic EIT effects, resulting in improved sensing capabilities compared to passive structures.

Findings

Enhanced sensitivity to refractive index changes

Significantly increased figure of merit

Amplified narrow transparency peak

Abstract

The gain-assisted plasmonic analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a metallic metamaterial is investigated for the purpose to enhance the sensing performance of the EIT-like plasmonic structure. The structure is composed of three bars in one unit, two of which are parallel to each other (dark quadrupolar element) but perpendicular to the third bar (bright dipolar element), The results show that, in addition to the high sensitivity to the refractive-index fluctuation of the surrounding medium, the figure of merit for such active EIT-like metamaterials can be greatly enhanced, which is attributed to the amplified narrow transparency peak.