Tailoring electromagnetically induced transparency for terahertz metamaterials: From diatomic to triatomic structural molecules

The coupling effects in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) for triatomic metamaterials are investigated at terahertz (THz) frequencies both experimentally and theoretically. We observed enhancement and cancellation of EIT with single transparency window, and also two additional ways to achieve double EIT transparency windows. One is from the hybridization between two dark atoms in a bright-dark-dark configuration. Another is from an averaged effect between absorption of the additional bright atom and the EIT from the original diatomic molecule in a bright-bright-dark configuration. It allows us to control EIT and the associated slow-light effect for THz metamaterials with high accuracy. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.