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We explore the use of cylindrical metasurfaces in providing several illusion mechanisms including scattering cancellation and creating fictitious line sources. We present the general synthesis approach that leads to such phenomena by modeling the metasurface with effective polarizability tensors and by applying boundary conditions to connect the tangential components of the desired fields to the required surface polarization current densities that generate such fields. We then use these required surface polarizations to obtain the effective polarizabilities for the synthesis of the metasurface. We demonstrate the use of this general method for the synthesis of metasurfaces that lead to scattering cancellation and illusion effects and discuss practical scenarios by using loaded dipole antennas to realize the discretized polarization current densities. This study is the first fundamental step that may lead to interesting electromagnetic applications, like stealth technology, antenna synthesis, wireless power transfer, sensors, cylindrical absorbers, etc.

We show that the gradient force generated by the near field of a chiral nanoparticle carries information about its chirality. On the basis of this physical phenomenon we propose a new microscopy technique that enables the prediction of spatial features of chirality of nanoscale samples by exploiting the photoinduced optical force exerted on an achiral tip in the vicinity of the test specimen. The tip-sample interactive system is illuminated by structured light to probe both the transverse and longitudinal (with respect to the beam propagation direction) components of the sample's magnetoelectric polarizability as the manifestation of its sense of handedness, i.e., chirality. We specifically prove that although circularly polarized waves are adequate to detect the transverse polarizability components of the sample, they are unable to probe the longitudinal component. To overcome this inadequacy and probe the longitudinal chirality, we propose a judiciously engineered combination of radially and azimuthally polarized beams as optical vortices possessing pure longitudinal electric and magnetic field components along their vortex axis, respectively. The proposed technique may benefit branches of science such as stereochemistry, biomedicine, physical and material science, and pharmaceutics.

We propose a high-resolution microscopy technique for enantiospecific detection of chiral samples down to sub-100-nm size based on force measurement. We delve into the differential photoinduced optical force ΔF exerted on an achiral probe in the vicinity of a chiral sample when left and right circularly polarized beams separately excite the sample-probe interactive system. We analytically prove that ΔF is entangled with the enantiomer type of the sample enabling enantiospecific detection of chiral inclusions. Moreover, we demonstrate that ΔF is linearly dependent on both the chiral response of the sample and the electric response of the tip and is inversely related to the quartic power of probe-sample distance. We provide physical insight into the transfer of optical activity from the chiral sample to the achiral tip based on a rigorous analytical approach. We support our theoretical achievements by several numerical examples highlighting the potential application of the derived analytic properties. Lastly, we demonstrate the sensitivity of our method to enantiospecify nanoscale chiral samples with chirality parameter on the order of 0.01 and discuss how the sensitivity of our proposed technique can be further improved.

We consider reciprocal metasurfaces with engineered reflection and transmission coefficients and study the role of normal (with respect to the metasurface plane) electric and magnetic polarizations on the possibilities to shape the reflection and transmission responses. We demonstrate in general and on a representative example that the presence of normal components of the polarization vectors does not add extra degrees of freedom in engineering the reflection and transmission characteristics of metasurfaces. Furthermore, we discuss advantages and disadvantages of equivalent volumetric and fully planar realizations of the same properties of functional metasurfaces.

We present a general methodology for electromagnetic homogenization and characterization of bianisotropic metasurfaces formed by regular or random arrangements of small arbitrary inclusions at interfaces of two different isotropic media. The approach unites and generalizes the earlier theories developed independently by two joint research groups: that of profs. Holloway and Kuester and that of profs. Simovski and Tretyakov. We analyze the features of both formalisms and discuss their peculiarities in several example cases. Our theory can be used in the analysis and synthesis of a wide spectrum of metasurfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, it has been shown that a metasurface of plasmonic nanospheres deposited on a highly refractive substrate requires a bianisotropic magnetoelectric coupling for its effective description. The effect has been coined substrate-induced bianisotropy. It leads to an asymmetric reflectance similar to bianisotropic metasurfaces. In this work, through a circuit model, we show that such bianisotropy does not necessarily emerge for all substrated metasurfaces. Indeed, we show that the thickness of the metasurface plays a crucial role to encounter substrate-induced bianisotropy. Moreover, by taking advantage of substrate-induced bianisotropy, we present the necessary conditions for the circuit model parameters to compensate the asymmetric reflectance generated by an intrinsically bianisotropic metasurface. We finally express that, in substrated metasurfaces, the asymmetric reflectance and the bianisotropic response are two separate issues albeit with interdependencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the optical properties of a meta-atom made of plasmonic nanopatches that possess an increasing degree of complexity. We show that if two nanopatches are strongly coupled and have a different geometrical footprint, the meta-atom exhibits a resonant magnetoelectric response, in addition to the anticipated resonant electric and magnetic response. Thus, it behaves similarly as the so-called omega particle, but with the unique advantage that frequency and strength of this magnetoelectric resonance can be independently tuned and modified with respect to the corresponding values of the electric resonance. This allows a metasurface of such meta-atoms to possess widely controlled reflection and transmission coefficients, e.g., the regimes of strongly asymmetric reflectance and perfect absorption become possible. Alternatively, an individual meta-atom of such kind can act as a directive nanoantenna with zero backscattered fields (Huygens' scatterer). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the impact of order and disorder is of fundamental importance to perceive and to appreciate the functionality of modern photonic metasurfaces. Metasurfaces with disordered and amorphous inner arrangements promise to mitigate problems that arise for their counterparts with strictly periodic lattices of elementary unit cells such as, e.g., spatial dispersion, and allows the use of fabrication techniques that are suitable for large scale and cheap fabrication of metasurfaces. In this study, we analytically, numerically and experimentally investigate metasurfaces with different lattice arrangements and uncover the influence of lattice disorder on their electromagnetic properties. The considered metasurfaces are composed of metal-dielectric-metal elements that sustain both electric and magnetic resonances. Emphasis is placed on understanding the effect of the transition of the lattice symmetry from a periodic to an amorphous state and on studying oblique illumination. For this scenario, we develop a powerful analytical model that yields, for the first time, an adequate description of the scattering properties of amorphous metasurfaces, paving the way for their integration into future applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have revised the transmission line model with the purpose of simplifying the electromagnetic characterization of metasurfaces with both electric and magnetic responses. The revised model is an efficient tool for the case when a metasurface is located on top of a finite-thickness substrate or inside a finite-thickness slab. We have derived analytical expressions for the grid series impedance and shunt admittance of a substrated metasurface. The presented theory is illustrated by a numerical example of an array consisting of Mie-resonant silicon nanospheres. We have retrieved individual polarizabilities of a single sphere in a uniform host medium and compared them with the predictions of classical Mie theory. Further, we have studied a more practical case when the array of Si spheres is located on top of a finite-thickness glass substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss possible topologies of physically different metasurfaces with equivalent macroscopic electromagnetic responses. We specifically demonstrate that the presence of normal components (with respect to the metasurface plane) of the polarization currents does not add any functionality in engineering the reflection and transmission characteristics which cannot occur in metasurfaces maintaining only tangential currents. Therefore, if a certain property is achievable using general volumetric inclusions, polarizable along all three directions, the same response can be achieved using some equivalent perfectly planar elements, polarizable only in the metasurface plane. Our results clarify what physical properties are necessary for realizing desired metasurface responses and promote flat microwave and optical designs, providing possibilities for dramatic complexity reduction of metasurfaces for rather general field transformations, including asymmetric reflection and transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The polarization response of molecules or meta-atoms to external electric and magnetic fields, which defines the electromagnetic properties of materials, can either be direct (electric field induces electric moment and magnetic field induces magnetic moment) or indirect (magnetoelectric coupling in bianisotropic scatterers). Earlier studies suggest that there is a fundamental bound on the indirect response of all passive scatterers: It is believed to be always weaker than the direct one. In this paper, we prove that there exist scatterers which overcome this bound substantially. Moreover, we show that the amplitudes of electric and magnetic polarizabilities can be negligibly small as compared to the magnetoelectric coupling coefficients. However, we prove that if at least one of the direct-excitation coefficients vanishes, magnetoelectric coupling effects in passive scatterers cannot exist. Our findings open a way to a new class of electromagnetic scatterers and composite materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonuniform metasurfaces (electrically thin composite layers) can be used for shaping refracted and reflected electromagnetic waves. However, known design approaches based on the generalized refraction and reflection laws do not allow realization of perfectly performing devices: there are always some parasitic reflections into undesired directions. In this paper we introduce and discuss a general approach to the synthesis of metasurfaces for full control of transmitted and reflected plane waves and show that perfect performance can be realized. The method is based on the use of an equivalent impedance matrix model which connects the tangential field components at the two sides on the metasurface. With this approach we are able to understand what physical properties of the metasurface are needed in order to perfectly realize the desired response. Furthermore, we determine the required polarizabilities of the metasurface unit cells and discuss suitable cell structures. It appears that only spatially dispersive metasurfaces allow realization of perfect refraction and reflection of incident plane waves into arbitrary directions. In particular, ideal refraction is possible only if the metasurface is bianisotropic (weak spatial dispersion), and ideal reflection without polarization transformation requires spatial dispersion with a specific, strongly nonlocal response to the fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we theoretically study electromagnetic reflection, transmission, and scattering properties of periodic and random arrays of particles which exhibit both electric-mode and magnetic-mode resonances. We compare the properties of regular and random grids and explain recently observed dramatic differences in resonance broadening in the electric and magnetic modes of random arrays. We show that randomness in the particle positioning influences equally on the scattering loss from both electric and magnetic dipoles, however, the observed resonance broadening can be very different depending on the absorption level in different modes as well as on the average electrical distance between the particles. The theory is illustrated by an example of a planar metasurface composed of cut-wire pairs. We show that in this particular case at the magnetic resonance the array response is almost not affected by positioning randomness due to lower frequency and higher absorption losses in that mode. The developed model allows predictions of behavior of random grids based on the knowledge of polarizabilities of single inclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genuinely homogeneous metamaterials, which may be characterized by local effective constitutive relations, are required for many spectacular metamaterial applications. Such metamaterials have to be made of meta-atoms, i.e., subwavelength resonators, which exhibit only electric and or magnetic dipole and negligible higher-order multipolar polarizabilities in the spectral range of interest. Here, we show that these desired meta-atoms can be designed by exploiting the extreme coupling regime. Appropriate meta-atoms are identified by performing a multipole analysis of the field scattered from the respective meta-atom. To design those particular meta-atoms it is important to disclose the frequency and angular-dependent polarizability of both dipole moments. We demonstrate the applicability of a purely analytical model to accurately calculate for a normally incident plane wave reflection and transmission from meta-surfaces made of periodically arranged meta-atoms. With our work we identify a possible route towards the engineering of artificial materials while only considering the response from its constituents. Our approach is generally applicable to all spectral domains and can be used to evaluate and design metamaterials made from different constituting materials, e.g., metals, dielectrics, or semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate experimentally the detection of magnetic force at optical frequencies, defined as the dipolar Lorentz force exerted on a photoinduced magnetic dipole excited by the magnetic component of light. Historically, this magnetic force has been considered elusive since, at optical frequencies, magnetic effects are usually overshadowed by the interaction of the electric component of light, making it difficult to recognize the direct magnetic force from the dominant electric forces. To overcome this challenge, we develop a photoinduced magnetic force characterization method that exploits a magnetic nanoprobe under structured light illumination. This approach enables the direct detection of the magnetic force, revealing the magnetic nearfield distribution at the nanoscale, while maximally suppressing its electric counterpart. The proposed method opens up new avenues for nanoscopy based on optical magnetic contrast, offering a research tool for all-optical spin control and optomagnetic manipulation of matter at the nanoscale.

We propose novel quantum antennas and metamaterials with a strong magnetic response at optical frequencies. Our design is based on the arrangement of natural quantum emitters with only electric dipole transition moments at distances smaller than a wavelength of light but much larger than their physical size. In particular, we show that an atomic dimer can serve as a magnetic antenna at its antisymmetric mode to enhance the decay rate of a magnetic transition in its vicinity by several orders of magnitude. Furthermore, we study metasurfaces composed of atomic bilayers with and without cavities and show that they can fully reflect the electric and magnetic fields of light, thus, forming nearly perfect electric or magnetic mirrors. The proposed metamaterials will embody the intrinsic quantum functionalities of natural emitters such as atoms, ions, color center, or molecules and can be fabricated with available state-of-the-art technologies, promising several applications both in classical optics and quantum engineering.

We show and compare various metallic and dielectric nanostructures for local magnetic field enhancement at optical frequency. We elaborate on the origin of the magnetic field enhancement in each structure and define figures of merit to compare the ability of the structures to enhance the magnetic field. We show that dielectric structures can be a good alternative to their plasmonic counterpart due to their low loss. The magnetic field enhancement of these structures can be utilized in studying magnetic dipole transitions, magnetic imaging, chirality, and enhanced spectroscopy applications.

Recent work has shown that optical magnetism, generally considered a challenging light-matter interaction, can be significant at the nanoscale. In particular, the dielectric nanostructures that support magnetic Mie resonances are low-loss and versatile optical magnetic elements that can effectively manipulate the magnetic field of light. However, the narrow magnetic resonance band of dielectric Mie resonators is often overshadowed by the electric response, which prohibits the use of such nanoresonators as efficient magnetic nanoantennas. Here, we design and fabricate a silicon (Si) truncated cone magnetic Mie resonator at visible frequencies and excite the magnetic mode exclusively by a tightly focused azimuthally polarized beam. We use photoinduced force microscopy to experimentally characterize the local electric near-field distribution in the immediate vicinity of the Si truncated cone at the nanoscale and then create an analytical model of such structure that exhibits a matching electric field distribution. We use this model to interpret the PiFM measurement that visualizes the electric near-field profile of the Si truncated cone with a superior signal-to-noise ratio and infer the magnetic response of the Si truncated cone at the beam singularity. Finally, we perform a multipole analysis to quantitatively present the dominance of the magnetic dipole moment contribution compared to other multipole contributions into the total scattered power of the proposed structure. This work demonstrates the excellent efficiency and simplicity of our method of using Si truncated cone structure under APB illumination compared to other approaches to achieve dominant magnetic excitations.

We suggest a novel switchable plasmonic dipole nanoantenna operating at mid-infrared frequencies that exploits phase-change materials. We show that the induced dipole moments of a nanoantenna, where a germanium antimony telluride (Ge 3 Sb 2 Te 6 or GST for short) nanopatch acts as a spacer between two coupled metallic nanopatches, can be controlled in a disruptive sense. By switching GST between its crystalline and amorphous phases, the nanoantenna can exhibit either an electric or a balanced magneto-electric dipole-like radiation. While the former radiation pattern is omnidirectional, the latter is directive. Based on this property exciting switching devices can be perceived, such as a metasurface whose functionality can be switched between an absorber and a reflector. The switching between stable amorphous and crystalline phases occurs on timescales of nanoseconds and can be achieved by an electrical or optical pulse.

In this work we theoretically reveal the huge local field enhancement in a so-called perfect plasmonic absorber. We study the power absorption of light in a planar grid modelled as an effective sheet with zero optical thickness. The key prerequisite of the total absorption is the simultaneous presence of both resonant electric and magnetic modes in the structure. We show that the needed level of the magnetic mode is achievable using the effect of substrate-induced bianisotropy. On the microscopic level this bianisotropy is a factor which results in the huge local field enhancement at the same wavelength where the maximal absorption holds.