Full manipulation of transparency and absorption through direct tuning of dark modes in high-Q Fano metamaterials

Abstract

Controlling the line shape of Fano resonance has continued to attract significant research attention in recent years owing to its practical applications such as lasing, biosensing, and slow-light devices. However, controllable Fano resonances always require stringent alignment of complex symmetry-breaking structures; therefore, the manipulation can only be performed with limited degrees of freedom and a narrow tuning range. This work demonstrates dark-mode excitation tuning independent of the bright mode for the first time, to the authors’ knowledge, in asymmetric Fano metamaterials. Metallic subwavelength slits are arranged to form asymmetric unit cells and generate a broad and bright (radiative) Fabry–Perot mode and a sharp and dark (non-radiative) surface mode. The introduction of the independent radial and angular asymmetries realizes independent control of the Fano phase (q) and quality factor (Q). This tunability provides a dynamic phase shift while maintaining a high-quality factor, enabling switching between nearly perfect transmission and absorption, which is confirmed both numerically and experimentally. The proposed scheme for fully controlled Fano systems can aid practical applications such as phase-sensitive switching devices.