Hybridization effect in coupled metamaterials

Abstract

Although the invention of the metamaterials has stimulated the interest of many researchers and possesses many important applications, the basic design idea is very simple: composing effective media from many small structured elements and controlling its artificial EM properties. According to the effective-media model, the coupling interactions between the elements in metamaterials are somewhat ignored; therefore, the effective properties of metamaterials can be viewed as the "averaged effect" of the resonance property of the individual elements. However, the coupling interaction between elements should always exist when they are arranged into metamaterials. Sometimes, especially when the elements are very close, this coupling effect is not negligible and will have a substantial effect on the metamaterials' properties. In recent years, it has been shown that the interaction between resonance elements in metamaterials could lead to some novel phenomena and interesting applications that do not exist in conventional uncoupled metamaterials. In this paper, we will give a review of these recent developments in coupled metamaterials. For the "meta-molecule" composed of several identical resonators, the coupling between these units produces multiple discrete resonance modes due to hybridization. In the case of a "meta-crystal" comprising an infinite number of resonators, these multiple discrete resonances can be extended to form a continuous frequency band by strong coupling. This kind of broadband and tunable coupled metamaterial may have interesting applications. Many novel metamaterials and nanophotonic devices could be developed from coupled resonator systems in the future.

On the Energy Shift between Near-Field and Far-Field Peak Intensities in Localized Plasmon Systems

“…Plasmons are damped HOs driven by the electric (and sometimes the magnetic) component of the incident light. [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] The absorption maximum occurs at the resonance frequency of the oscillator. The plasmon-induced electric field enhancements are proportional to the plasmon-induced surface charges, which in turn are proportional to the plasmon amplitudes.…”

“…Here we show that this universally observed phenomenon is a general and central consequence of the universal behavior of damped harmonic oscillators (HOs). Plasmons are damped HOs driven by the electric (and sometimes the magnetic) component of the incident light. − The absorption maximum occurs at the resonance frequency of the oscillator. The plasmon-induced electric field enhancements are proportional to the plasmon-induced surface charges, which in turn are proportional to the plasmon amplitudes .…”

Resonance phenomena in electromagnetic metamaterials for the terahertz domain: a review

“…In their subsequent works, extensive use of the hybridization model was used to explain plasmonic resonances in nanoshells and allied nanoparticle structures [118][119][120][121][122]. The model has proved to be a useful tool when it comes to explaining natures of coupled resonances of metamaterials, which can be described as cumulative effects of the near-field-coupled resonators-based metal molecules [123].…”

van der Waals metamaterials

“…To date, controllably coupling metamaterials in the manner required to mimic vdW heterostructures remains challenging, despite several promising layered designs [18][19][20] . Meanwhile, coupling-induced hybridization effects were investigated in systems of neighboring acoustic resonators [21][22][23] , but whether they can be used to imitate vdW heterostructures is an open question.…”