All-optical switching in metamaterial with high structural symmetry

TL;DR

This paper proposes a polarization-insensitive all-optical switching method using a symmetric planar metamaterial with nonlinear substrate, achieving transmission control near a Fano resonance.

Contribution

It introduces a novel symmetric metamaterial design enabling polarization-insensitive all-optical switching based on trapped-mode resonances.

Findings

Switching occurs near the Fano resonance frequency.

High-quality-factor trapped-mode excitation enables effective switching.

The design is polarization insensitive due to high structural symmetry.

Abstract

We argue the possibility of realization of a polarization insensitive all-optical switching in a planar metamaterial composed of a 4-fold periodic array of two concentric metal rings placed on a substrate of nonlinear material. It is demonstrated that a switching may be achieved between essentially different values of transmission near the resonant frequency of the high-quality-factor Fano-shape trapped-mode excitation.