Abstract

We numerically investigate loss compensation and transmission in pump-probe experiments in resonant metamaterials with gain using an FDTD algorithm coupled to semiclassical rate equations. We observe differential transmittance signals from the coupled system that are a factor of four to five larger than for the bare quantum well. We observe a more rapid temporal decay of the differential transmittance signal for the coupled system compared to the bare quantum well. The effective metamaterial gain beyond the bare quantum-well gain, leading to a significant reduction of the metamaterial’s losses, but no complete compensation of the losses. We explain experimentally observed negative differential transmission by gain-dependent impedance. Article not available.

© 2011 Optical Society of America