Electromagnetic transparency and slow light in an isotropic 3D optical metamaterial, due to Fano-like coupling of Mie resonances in excitonic nano-sphere inclusions

A three dimensional isotropic metamaterial is proposed and theoretically studied, which is composed of excitonic spherical nanoparticles in a dielectric host and exhibits electromagnetic transparency and slow light effects in optical regime. The approach is different from the conventional methods of realizing classical Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) or plasmon induced transparency effects, which are usually based on the interaction of dark and bright states of the medium plasmonic constituents. Instead, it is based on the Fano-like coupling of Mie resonances in the spherical inclusions, resulting from sharp and strong excitonic resonance of the particles. Using the Extended Maxwell Garnett effective medium approximation for calculating the effective electromagnetic parameters of the proposed metamaterial structure, it is shown that EIT-like effects can be produced, such as steep normal dispersion profiles within narrow transparency windows, resulting in high values of group index of refraction on the order of several thousands and figure of merit values around 10, near the excitonic resonance of the nanoparticle inclusions in UV region.