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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.