Staggered H-shaped metamaterial based on electromagnetically induced transparency effect and its refractive index sensing performance

Abstract In this work, we report numerical research concerning a planar electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) terahertz metamaterial capable of exhibiting refractive index sensing with high sensitivity. The unit cell of the proposed EIT metamaterial is consisted by metal cut wires with staggered H-shaped arrangement, and can display a sharply narrow transmission transparency peak at 2.653 THz with high quality-factor (Q-factor) valued 48.3. Through analysis of the extracted surface current distributions on metallic structures, it is confirmed that the EIT-like resonance results from the destructive interference of the electric quadrupole excited by the strong radiation of electric dipole. Furthermore, the EIT-like effect shows highly sensitive response to the refractive index of the covered layer. When it covered by 3 μ m -thickness analyte layer, the EIT metamaterial can yield a sensitivity of 0.2695 THz/refractive index unit (RIU) and a figure of merit (FOM) of 5.39. Meanwhile, it is also found that the sensitivity S is inversely proportional to the dielectric constant of the substrate material, and effective sensing capability maintains when the coverage thickness within 15 μ m . The proposed EIT metamaterial design provides great potential application for refractive index sensing performance.