Highly-dispersive transparency at optical frequencies in planar metamaterials based on two-bright-mode coupling

Using a planar metamaterial, which consists of two silver strips, we theoretically demonstrate the plasmonic electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT)-like spectral response at optical frequencies. The two silver strips serve as the bright modes, and are excited strongly by the incident wave. Based on the weak hybridization between the two bright modes, a highly-dispersive plasmonic EIT-like spectral response appears in our scheme. Moreover, the group index is higher than that of another scheme which utilizes the strong coupling between the bright and dark modes. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America