Temporal coupled mode theory for high-$Q$ resonances in dielectric metasurfaces

TL;DR

This paper develops a coupled mode theory for high-Q resonances in dielectric metasurfaces, providing a generic formula for Fano resonance line-shapes and analyzing symmetry effects on spectral features.

Contribution

It introduces a novel coupled mode theory framework that incorporates asymmetry and symmetry considerations, accurately describing Fano resonances and bound states in the continuum in dielectric metasurfaces.

Findings

Derived a generic Fano resonance line-shape formula for lossless metasurfaces.

Uncovered symmetry effects on Fano resonance profiles.

Predicted existence of unidirectionally guided modes and their spectral signatures.

Abstract

In this work, we propose a coupled mode theory for resonant response from quasi-guided modes in periodic dielectric metasurfaces. First, we derived a generic set of constraints imposed onto the parameters of the temporal coupled mode theory by energy conservation and time-reversal symmetry in an invariant form that allows for asymmetry between the coupling and decoupling coefficients. The proposed approach is applied to the problem of Fano resonances induced by isolated quasi-guided modes in the regime of specular reflection. Our central result is a generic formula for the line-shape of the Fano resonance in transmittance for the lossless metasurfaces in the framework of 2D electrodynamics. We consider all possible symmetries of the metasurface elementary cell and uncover the effects that the symmetry incurs on the profile of the Fano resonance induced by an isolated high-$Q$ mode. It is shown that the proposed approach correctly describes the presence of robust reflection and transmission zeros in the spectra as well as the spectral signatures of bound states in the continuum. The approach is applied to uniderictionally guided resonant modes in metasurfaces with an asymmetric elementary cell. It is found that the existence of such modes and the transmittance in their spectral vicinity are consistent with the theoretical predictions. Furthermore, the theory predicts that a uniderictionally guided resonant mode is dual to a counter-propagating mode of a peculiar type which is coupled with the outgoing wave on both sides of the metasurface but, nonetheless, exhibits only a single-sided coupling with incident waves.