Microplasma generation by slow microwave in an electromagnetically induced transparency-like metasurface

Microplasma generation using microwaves in an electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-like metasurface composed of two types of radiatively coupled cut-wire resonators with slightly different resonance frequencies is investigated. A microplasma is generated in either of the gaps of the cut-wire resonators as a result of strong enhancement of the local electric field associated with resonance and slow microwave effects. The threshold microwave power for plasma ignition is found to reach a minimum at the EIT-like transmission peak frequency, where the group index is maximized. A pump–probe measurement of the metasurface reveals that the transmission properties can be significantly varied by varying the properties of the generated microplasma near the EIT-like transmission peak frequency and the resonance frequency. The electron density of the microplasma is roughly estimated to be of order 1×1010 cm−3 for a pump power of 15.8 W by comparing the measured transmission spectrum for the probe wave with the numerically calculated spectrum. In the calculation, we assumed that the plasma is uniformly generated in the resonator gap, that the electron temperature is 2 eV, and that the elastic scattering cross section is 20×10−16 cm2.