Terahertz diffraction enhanced transparency probed in the near field

Electromagnetically induced transparency in metamaterials allows to engineer structures which transmit narrow spectral ranges of radiation while exhibiting a large group index. Implementation of this phenomenon frequently calls for strong near-field coupling of bright (dipolar) resonances to dark (multipolar) resonances in the metamolecules comprising the metamaterials. The sharpness and contrast of the resulting transparency windows thus depends strongly on how closely these metamolecules can be placed to one another, placing constraints on fabrication capabilities. In this manuscript, we demonstrate that the reliance on near-field interaction strength can be relaxed, and the magnitude of the electromagnetic-induced transparency enhanced, by exploiting the long-range coupling between metamolecules in periodic lattices. By placing dolmen structures resonant at THz frequencies in a periodic lattice, we show a significant increase of the transparency window when the in-plane diffraction is tuned to the resonant frequency of the metamolecules, as confirmed by direct mapping of the THz near-field amplitude across a lattice of dolmens. Through the direct interrogation of the dark resonance in the near field, we show the interplay of near- and far-field couplings in optimizing the response of planar dolmen arrays via diffraction-enhanced transparency.