10/21/22, 12:20 PM Controlled and tunable plasmon-induced transparency based on graphene metasurfaces in atmospheric windows - Scienc…

Diamond and Related Materials

Volume 127, August 2022, 109210

Controlled and tunable plasmon-induced transparency based

on graphene metasurfaces in atmospheric windows
Hongting Chen a, b, Zhaojian Zhang b, Junbo Yang b , Zigang Zhou a

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Highlights
• We have proposed a dynamically tunable and controllable PIT in atmospheric
windows.

• We use PIT to implement triple-frequency asynchronous switch or filter with

dynamically tunable modulation depth.

• Our work has a more comprehensive filter range than the F-P cavity filters on IR
detectors and modulates the light intensity and phase.

Abstract
Considering the development of plasmon-induced transparency functional devices and the
research value of the atmospheric windows in many civilian and military applications, we
propose a mid-infrared metasurface composed of a multilayer elliptical graphene and two
graphene strips that can generate PIT, and the PIT can be dynamically tuned in the range of
3.67 μm–9.53 μm beyond monolayer graphene. The numerical results from Finite-Difference
Time-Domain (FDTD) method are consistent with the analytical results from Lorentz
oscillator theory. In addition, we can control the generation and vanishment of the PIT by
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changing the polarization of the source, achieving a triple-frequency asynchronous switch,

and the performance index indicates that the modulation depth is maintained at about 90% at
a relatively high Fermi energy level. Our work achieves a dynamically tunable and controllable
PIT for applications including filters and optical switches in atmospheric windows.

Graphical abstract

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Keywords
Plasmon-induced transparency; Graphene; Metasurface; Atmospheric windows

1. Introduction
Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is an optical transparency phenomenon based
on quantum interference effects. It occurs in a specific atomic energy level system with strong
dispersion effects near the transmission window [1], which can effectively reduce the group
velocity and has essential applications in the field of slow light [2]. However, limited by ultra-
low temperature, stable laser pumping, and the working band limitation caused by appearing
in a fixed energy level system [3], EIT is not suitable in practical applications. So it has become
necessary to implement EIT-like effects based on metamaterials, such as plasmon-induced
transparency (PIT), which have the advantages of flexible structural design and ease of
implementation. Up to now, PIT devices have been used in many applications, such as sensing
[4], [5], [6], optical switching [7], filtering [8], slow light [9], [10], etc.

Since Zhang et al. [11] first proposed to use metamaterials to achieve a PIT effect in 2008,
researchers have proposed many functional devices based on that. After more than a decade of
development, PIT devices have been realized based on not only metal metasurfaces, but also
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semiconductor materials [12], [13], Ge2Sb2Te5 [14] and graphene [15], [16] to achieve tunable
and controllable PIT. Among them, graphene can be used as a suitable carrier for surface
plasmon polaritons because of its series of excellent physical properties, such as more
enhanced localization and low loss in terahertz and mid-infrared bands [17]. Therefore,
various graphene structures had been proposed to realize tunable PIT functional devices, such
as optical switches [18], [19], filters [20], [21], refractive index sensing [22], [23], [24], slow light
devices [25], [26], [27], and modulators [28]. However, the PIT functional devices based on
graphene metasurfaces in previous studies mainly work in the terahertz band, compared with
less relevant works in the mid-infrared bands. At the same time, techniques like radiation
cooling, infrared detection, infrared imaging and infrared stealth using the radiation from the
objects are usually applied in the atmospheric window I (3 μm–5 μm) and atmospheric
window II (8 μm–14 μm) [29], [30], which mean the atmospheric windows are widely used for
many civilian and military applications. Furthermore, with the development of infrared
detection technology, it has now begun to focus on chip-level optical field modulation based
on metasurface. The modulated parameters include light intensity, phase, polarization, and so
on. The existing fourth-generation photodetectors have achieved a miniature optical filter
with an operating tuning bandwidth of 900 nm in the mid-infrared band by adjusting the
cavity spacing with MEMS technology [31]. Since the double-valley profile of the PIT spectral
curve makes it potential for multifunctional filters or optical switches, designing broadband
tunable filters or optical switches based on tunable PIT in atmospheric windows is our
purpose.

This paper presents a graphene-based mid-infrared PIT metasurface consisting of elliptical

graphene and two vertically placed graphene strips. To achieve a tunable PIT in atmospheric
windows I and atmospheric windows II, we have used multilayer graphene to form the
metasurface, unlike the monolayer graphene used in the vast majority of previous works. The
effect of the number of graphene layers on the transmittance and tuning bandwidth is
investigated, and the simulation results showed that the bandwidth of PIT can be tuned to
cover the higher transmission band of two atmospheric windows, i.e., 3.67 μm–9.53 μm, for
cases such as graphene layers N = 3 and Fermi energy levels from 0.2 eV to 1.2 eV, the PIT can
be well controlled from occurrence to vanishment by changing the polarization angle. This
research provides a new idea for a multifunctional switch and filter operating in two
atmospheric windows.

2. Structure and research method

The single unit of the PIT metasurface is shown in Fig. 1(b). It is composed of elliptical
graphene (EG) and two vertically placed graphene strips (GS). Fig. 1(a) shows the structure is
placed on a substrate with refractive index n = 1.45, and an x-polarized plane wave light is
illuminated from the top of the structure. The elliptical graphene is connected to the lower
metal electrode through ultrafine metal wire, and the Fermi energy level Ef1 is tuned by the
gate voltage Vg1, while the graphene strips are connected to the upper electrode through the
metal wire, the Fermi energy level Ef2 is tuned by the gate voltage Vg2. Therefore, the two gate

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voltages can respectively modulate the Fermi energy levels of EG and GS, which can be
expressed as [32]:

(1)

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Fig. 1. (a) Overall structure diagram of metasurface; (b) structure diagram of a metasurface
unit; here, the geometric parameters are as follows: the asymmetry parameter S = 20 nm, the
coupling distance g = 12.5 nm, the period Px = 185 nm, Py = 120 nm and L1 = 25 nm, L2 = 60
nm, W1 = 40 nm, W2 = 35 nm.

Here, ℏ, VF, ε0, εd, e, d0 are the reduced Planck constant, the Fermi velocity, the permittivity of
vacuum, the permittivity of the substrate, the electron charge, and the substrate thickness
respectively.

In general, both the bulk dielectric constant [33] and the surface conductivity can be used for
modeling graphene. The difference between the two models is that the bulk dielectric
constant is used for three-dimensional modeling, where the physical thickness in the z-
direction needs to be given in the simulation. The electromagnetic response of the material is
characterized by the dielectric constant. In contrast, the surface conductivity is modeled in
two dimensions, where the physical thickness does not need to be given. The conductivity
directly characterizes the response of the material. It can be combined with a 2D rectangle in
Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) to obtain simulation results with less computational
memory and time. In this paper, the surface conductivity is used to characterize graphene.
The surface conductivity of graphene can be expressed as: [34].

(2)

(3)

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(4)

The σintra and σinter is the intraband and interband terms, respectively, where Γ is the
scattering rate, Ef is the chemical potential, ω is the angular frequency, kB is the Boltzmann
constant, T is the room temperature, respectively, and fd(ε) = (e(ε−EF)/KBT + 1)−1 is the Fermi-Dirac
distribution. Although the surface conductivity material model specified by Eqs. (2), (3), (4) is
valid only for a single graphene layer, we can still modeling multilayer graphene by scaling the
total conductivity by the number of layers, the conductivity of N-layer graphene is Nσ [35]. The
carrier mobility can reach 40,000 cm2/Vs [36] at room temperature according to literature. The
relaxation time can be calculated by the formula τ = uEf/eVF [32], and the scattering rate can be
obtained through formula Γ = 1/2τ, the Fermi energy level can be tuned from 0.2 eV to 1.2 eV
through the gate voltage, resulting in the dynamic tuning of the electromagnetic response of
graphene.

3. Results and discussion

To better understand the physical mechanism of the PIT of this structure, we presented the
transmission spectra of individual EG and GS as well as the transmission spectra of EG and
GS together in Fig. 2(a). It can be seen that a Lorentz-type mode is generated in 4.34 μm (blue
line) when only the elliptical graphene exists, it is regarded as bright modes since it can be
directly excited by the x-polarized light. Similarly, when the graphene strips are exist alone,
the transmission curve (purple line) show no resonant dip, indicating that the graphene strip
is not coupled to the incident plane wave in this band and cannot be directly excited, thus
acting as a dark mode. When elliptical graphene (bright mode) is presented together with
vertically placed graphene strips (dark mode) and the relative distance between their center,
i.e., the asymmetry parameter S = 20 nm, a PIT effect is produced and the central wavelength
of the PIT window is 4.40 μm. The Ez electric field distribution of the dark mode is a
quadrupole oscillation, while the electric field of the bright mode is almost invisible, which
proves that the bright mode is suppressed, and such electric field distribution proves that this
is a PIT phenomenon caused by the interference between bright and dark modes.

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Fig. 2. (a) The transmission spectra of individual EG and GS, as well as the transmission
spectra of EG and GS together, and the electric field distribution at the center wavelength of
the transmission window; (b) schematic diagram of the Lorentz oscillator theory model. (For
interpretation of the references to color in this figure, the reader is referred to the web version
of this article.)

To further analyze the PIT effect theoretically, we used the Lorentz oscillator model for the
bright and dark modes. Firstly, as shown in Fig. 2(b), we can treat both oscillator A and
oscillator B as a resonant system (inside), and the plane wave from outside is incident into the
resonant system, the incident field can be defined as ∣0〉, with the expression E = E0eiωt, while
the amplitude expressions of the bright modes ∣1〉 and dark modes ∣0〉 are and
. According to the excitation paths of the bright and dark modes, they can be divided
into ∣0〉 − ∣1〉 as well as ∣0〉 − ∣1〉 − ∣2〉 − ∣0〉 two paths, which will interfere with each
other to produce the PIT effect, and according to the Lorentz oscillator theory, the process can
be expressed as [37], [38]:

(5)

Here, ω, ω1 and ω2 represent the incident light frequencies, the frequencies of the bright and
dark modes respectively, γ1 and γ2 represent the intrinsic loss of the bright and dark modes
respectively, this intrinsic loss includes resonance loss and radiation loss, k represents the
coupling strength of the bright and dark modes, and g is a parameter describing the coupling
strength of the bright mode with the incident electric filed. The magnitude of the bright
mode can be derived from Eq. (5) as:

(6)

Thus, the transmission can be calculated by:

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(7)

The numerical fitting results obtained by Eqs. (5), (6), (7) are shown in the black dotted line in
Fig. 2(a). It can be seen that the simulation results of the FDTD can be well fitted by the
Lorentz oscillator theory, which also ensures consistency between the simulation results and
the theoretical analysis.

To enable our designed graphene metasurface structure to better cover the atmospheric
window I under a high Fermi energy level, we consider broadening the bandwidth of the PIT
window to make it cover a wider band. As shown in Fig. 3(a), when we reduce the gap distance
from 12.5 nm to 2.5 nm, the full width at half maxima (FWHM) of the transmission window is
broadened about 0.4 μm. In addition, the right dip is blue-shifted, the transmittance increases,
and the left dip is red-shifted, but the transmittance remains almost unchanged. From the
Lorentz oscillator theory, an increase in the coupling strength k will make the PIT effect more
apparent, as shown by the increase in the transmission window transmittance, accompanied
by an increase in the FWHM of the transmission window. To verify this theoretical analysis,
we have carried out a numerical fitting of the coupling strength k according to the Lorentz
oscillator theory, as shown in Fig. 3(b), in which the coupling distance g decreases from
12.5 nm to 2.5 nm, the intrinsic loss of the bright and dark modes remains essentially
unchanged. However, the coupling strength k gradually increases as coupling distance g
decreases. This result shows that the coupling strength k between the bright and dark modes
can be increased by reducing the coupling distance g, and the increase in coupling strength
leads to an increase in the FWHM of the transmission window, so our simulation results are
consistent with the theoretical analysis. On this basis, we reduce Py from 120 nm to 80 nm to
make the profile of the PIT transmission curve symmetrical at higher Fermi energy levels. As
shown in Fig. 3(c), the left dip red-shifted, and the transmission of the left dip decreases, the
right dip almost remained unchanged at the same time. Therefore, the structural parameters
are changed to Py=80 nm, g=2.5 nm, which is beneficial for optical switching and filtering
applications.

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Fig. 3. (a) A tunability of PIT effect by change the gap distance; (b) Lorentz theory fitting
parameter curve; (c) transmission spectra of PIT with the decrease of Py.

After we change the Py and g, the PIT transmission curve is shown in Fig. 4(a)–(b). As the Fermi
energy level decreases, the PIT transmission curve red-shifts. The reason for such a change
can be explained by the graphene SPP wavelength response formula [32]:

(8)

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Fig. 4. Γ=0.3 meV, N=2; (a) PIT red-shifts in the atmospheric window I (3 μm–5 μm), and (b)
atmospheric window II (8 μm–14 μm).

The formula shows that the response wavelength λ of graphene SPP is proportional to the
geometrical parameters and inversely proportional to the Fermi energy level, so a decrease in
Fermi energy level causes an increase in wavelength. In the atmospheric window II, the 8 μm
to 14 μm band covering rate is relatively high, but the transmission curve can only cover
4.34 μm to 5.00 μm in the atmospheric window I, when the Fermi energy level can only be
tuned in the range of 0.2 eV to 1.2 eV, the PIT transmission curve can still be blue-shifted by
changing the number of graphene layers to cover more range of the atmospheric window I.

It is difficult for the bilayer graphene to cover the 3 μm–5 μm band further when the tuning
range of Fermi energy level is only 0.2 eV–1.2 eV. Combined with the work of Chu [35], we
further blueshift the center wavelength of transmission valley by increasing the number of
graphene layers N to cover the 3 μm–5 μm band better while also increasing the modulation
depth, narrowing the linewidth and reducing the tuning bandwidth. Although the reason is
not explicitly stated in the literature, we believe that the effect caused by increasing the
number of graphene layers N is almost the same as increasing the Fermi energy level. Firstly,
as shown in Fig. 5(a), the increase of the Fermi energy level will cause the increase of the Re(σ).
However, the blue shift will cause the decrease of the Re(σ), the Δ Re (σ) caused by the Fermi
energy level is smaller than the Δ Re (σ) caused by the blue shift, so the Re(σ) is actually
decreasing. The Re(σ) are directly related with the quality factor, the decrease of the Re(σ)
causes the increase of the quality factor, which further leads to the increase of the interaction
time between the electromagnetic wave and the graphene metasurface. The stronger
resonance also means that the less electromagnetic field energy passes through the
metasurface, which means deeper modulation depth (MD), and the reduction of the Re(σ) also
means lower intrinsic losses. So the MD increases and the linewidth becomes narrow.
Combined with the discussion, we believe that the blueshift caused by increasing the Fermi
energy level of graphene and the blueshift caused by increasing the number of layers can be
considered approximately equivalent, i.e., both are caused by enhanced resonance. Therefore,
similar results can be observed. In this way, the coverage of the graphene metasurface in the
range of 3 μm–5 μm is increased. Fig. 6(a) shows that the tuning bandwidths are 9.96 μm,
7.09 μm, 5.86 μm, 5.10 um for different graphene layers N = 1, 2, 3, 4 respectively, and the
Fermi energy level changes from 0.2 eV to 1.2 eV, the corresponding tuning range is 4.34 μm–
11.43 μm for N = 2, 3.67 μm–9.53 μm for N = 3 and 3.33 μm–8.4 μm for N = 4. This result is
consistent with our earlier discussions that an increase in N leads to a decrease in the tuning
range. It can also be seen from Fig. 6(b) that the tuning range is able to cover both the
atmospheric window I and the atmospheric window II better when N changes from 2 to 3. In
this work, the choice of N = 3 is more favorable for our graphene metasurface working in two
atmospheric windows, and the tuning of PIT transmission curves in the atmospheric window
I and window II is shown in Fig. 6(c–d). As the Fermi energy level decreases, the PIT

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transmission curve is still red-shifted. The transmittance of the left dip and the right dip as
well as the FWHM of the transmission window increase, which is the same as when the
number of graphene layers N = 2.

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Fig. 5. Γ=0.3 meV, N=3; (a) real part of graphene surface conductivity; (b) imaginary part of
graphene surface conductivity.

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Fig. 6. (a) Ef1=Ef2 and they both tuning from 0.2 eV to 1.2 eV; Γ=0.3 meV. Tuning bandwidths of
the PIT with different graphene layers N; (b) different graphene layers correspond to the
atmospheric window range covered by the tuning bandwidth (blue shading is the atmospheric
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transmission spectrum); (c–d) tuning of PIT transmission curves in atmospheric window I

and atmospheric window II by changing the Fermi energy level. (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this
article.)

In addition to achieving a tunable PIT in two atmospheric windows, it is also essential to

achieve controllability of the PIT, including controlling the peak and valley intensity,
generation, and vanishment of the PIT. As shown in Fig. 7(a), we can control the generation
and vanishment of PIT by changing the polarization angle of the incident plane wave. As the
polarization angle changes from 0° to 90°, dip 2 (6.08 μm) appears in the transmission window,
and dip 1 (5.81 μm) and dip 3 (6.54 μm) fade away. It can also be seen from the electric field
distribution of ∣Ez∣ in Fig. 7(b) that dip 1 is mainly caused by the joint action of vertically
placed GS and horizontally placed EG, among them, the GS occupy the prominent role. The
filed distribution of the dip 3 indicates that the transmittance valley is caused by both of the
EG and GS, while the EG dominates. As for the dip 2, it can be seen very clearly from the
electric field distribution that it is caused by GS. From the distribution of the electric field
corresponding to the three wavelengths, as the angle of polarization changes from 0° to 90°,
the electric field strength gradually decreases for dip 1 and dip 3 and gradually increases for
dip 2, so the corresponding transmittance increases for dip 1 and dip 3 and decreases for dip
2. This phenomenon is an asynchronous switch regulation, so a triple-channel switch can be
realized by adjusting the polarization angle. We control the signal on-off by varying the
polarization angle so that the PIT effect can be generated in the atmospheric windows or
vanishment in the 5 μm to 8 μm band. We can assess the performance of an optical switch by
its modulation depth (MD) and insertion loss (IL).

(9)

(10)

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Fig. 7. (a) Ef1=Ef2=0.4 eV, Γ=0.3 meV, N=3, varying the polarization angle from 0° to 90° to
control the generation and vanishment of the PIT; (b) varying the polarization angle 0° to 90°
for dip 1, dip 2, dip 3 corresponding to the electric field distribution of ∣Ez∣. (c) Γ=0.3 meV,
N=3, fixed bright mode Ef1=0.4 eV, change Ef2 from 0.30 eV to 0.50 eV; (d) variation of MD with
change of Fermi energy level. MD1, MD2, MD3 corresponding to dip 1, dip 2, dip 3; (e) the
insertion loss and minimum value of transmittance for the three dips when the Fermi energy
level changed from 0.2 eV to 1.2 eV. IL1, IL2, IL3 and Tmax1, Tmax2, Tmax3, corresponding to dip
1, did 2, dip 3.

dip 1 (5.81 μm), dip 2 (6.08 μm) and dip 3 (6.54 μm) have an MD of 90.8 %, 97.1 %, and 95.6 %
respectively. The IL is 0.32 dB, 0.19 dB, and 0.22 dB, which are good for optical switches in the
mid-infrared band. As the Fermi energy level increases, the dispersion loss decreases and the
transmission valley, or the minimum value of transmittance, decreases further, resulting in a
deeper MD. In contrast, Fermi energy level decreases, the dispersion loss increases, the
minimum value of transmittance increases, and the MD also decreases. As shown in Fig. 7(d),
the MD decreases with the decrease of the Fermi energy Level, as mentioned above, the
decrease of the Fermi energy Level would cause the increase of the minimum value of
transmittance, thus leads the decrease of MD. According to the formula to calculated the IL,
we can know that maximum value of transmittance and IL are inversely proportional. The
variation of the insertion loss and maximum values of transmittance is shown in Fig. 7(e), we
can see from Fig. 7(e) that IL2 and IL3 almost unchanged due to the constant of the Tmax2 and
Tmax3, while IL1 increases with the decrease of the Tmax1. In general, MD is higher than 90 %
and low IL can be achieved at a relatively high Fermi energy levels. Thus, the performance of
the tunable optical switch realized by the graphene metasurfaces in the atmospheric windows
I is better than atmospheric windows II.

In addition to the controllability of the PIT, We also investigate the tunability of the PIT
transmission curve for the bright mode at the Fermi energy level Ef1 = 0.40 eV, the graphene
layers N, scattering rate were fixed at N = 3 and Γ = 0.3 meV respectively, and the Fermi energy
level Ef2 of the dark mode is changed from 0.30 eV to 0.50 eV as shown in Fig. 7(c). As Ef2
decreases, the PIT curve is red-shifted overall, the transmittance of the left dip decreases,
while the transmittance of the right dip gradually increases. Thus, the transmittance or
central wavelength of the valley can be tuned by fixing Ef1 or Ef2 and changing the other. For
example, if Ef2 is reduced, the PIT transmission curve will be red-shifted, with the
transmission of the left dip increasing and the transmission of the right dip decreasing, and
conversely, if Ef2 is increased, the PIT transmission curve will be blue-shifted, with the
transmission of the left dip decreasing and transmission of the right dip increasing, Thus
covering both sides of the band with 6.33 μm as the central wavelength.

The two tuning methods above for the PIT transmission curve are not necessarily related to
the band. Thus, the generation and vanishment of the PIT can be controlled by changing the
polarization angle over the entire tuning bandwidth of the Fermi energy level change from
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0.2 eV to 1.2 eV, and the Fermi energy level of the bright or dark mode can be tuned
independently to the transmittance of the valley on both sides of the central wavelength of
PIT window, so it is a controllable and tunable PIT in atmospheric window.

4. Conclusion
In summary, this work explores the possibility of graphene PIT metasurfaces for applications
in dynamically tunable filters or optical switches in the atmospheric window. We discuss the
effect of the number of graphene layers on the tuning bandwidth when the Fermi energy level
varies only at 0.2 eV–1.2 eV, simultaneously covering two atmospheric windows to achieve a
dynamically tunable filter or optical switch. Simulation results and theoretical results show
that the tuning bandwidth is 3.67 μm–9.53 μm when N=3, which can cover two atmospheric
windows well. In addition, the control of the PIT effect on/off is realized by changing the
polarization angle. Based on this, triple-channel asynchronous filtering or optical switching
can be realized. At the same time, 90 % MD and low IL can be achieved at a relatively high
Fermi energy level, and the tuning bandwidth is better than that of the microfilter realized by
the F-P cavity. Therefore, our work achieves a dynamically tunable PIT in two atmospheric
windows. If this graphene-based metasurface PIT-on-chip device is integrated into an infrared
detector, it can realize functions such as multi-channel dynamic filtering or optical switching,
which provides a potential component for the design of metasurface on-chip functional
devices in the mid-infrared band.

Funding
The National Natural Science Foundation of China (60907003, 61805278, 62005107, 11875228);
the Foundation of NUDT (JC13-02-13, ZK17-03-01); the Hunan Provincial Natural Science
Foundation of China (13JJ3001); the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University
(NCET-12-0142).

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Hongting Chen: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing-original draft;
Zhaojian Zhang: Resources, Software, Writing-Original draft; Junbo Yang and Zigang Zhou:
Funding acquisition, Supervision, Project administration, Writing-Review & editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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