Dynamically Switchable Multispectral Plasmon-Induced Transparency in Stretchable Metamaterials

We propose dynamically switchable multispectral plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) with high modulation depth in a three-dimensional metamaterial standing on a flexible substrate. The proposed metamaterial is composed of a pair of metal–insulator–metal (MIM) nano-cut-wires and a pair of insulator–metal–insulator (IMI) nano-cut-wires. Results show that two PIT windows can be achieved because of the near-field coupling between the dipole supported by the IMI nano-cut-wire and two quadrupoles supported by the MIM structures. These two PIT windows can be blue-shifted or even flipped over by stretching the substrate along one direction, or be switched off by stretching along the other direction. A classical coupled oscillator model is developed to quantitatively describe and explain these results. We expect this work will find promising applications in multispectral sensors, slow light devices and nonlinear optical devices.