In this paper, we describe a new method to improve fast-light transmission, which uses cascades. We design a simple plasmonic device that enables plasmonic-induced absorption (PIA). It consists mainly of two parallel rectangular cavities. The numerical results simulated by using the finite element method (FEM) confirm its function. The corresponding group delay-time can reach –0.146 ps for the PIA window. Based on this result, we propose a cascade device, with the dual-rectangular cavity system as building block, to improve fast-light transmission even more. The results indicate that the cascade scheme can increase the group delay-time to –0.456 ps, which means the fast-light feature is substantially enhanced compared with the non-cascading approach. The effect of the distance between two cascade resonators and other structural parameters is also investigated. Finally, we use this design concept to build a refractive-index sensor with a sensitivity of 701 nm/RIU. © 2019, The Author(s).