Electric dipole-free interaction of visible light with pairs of subwavelength-size silver particles

P. Grahn, A. Shevchenko, and M. Kaivola
Phys. Rev. B 86, 035419 – Published 13 July 2012

Abstract

In subwavelength-sized particles, light-induced multipole moments of orders higher than the electric dipole are usually negligibly small, which allows for the light-matter interaction to be accurately treated within the electric dipole approximation. In this work we show that in a specially designed meta-atom, a disc metadimer, the electric quadrupole and magnetic dipole can be the only excitable multipoles. This condition is achieved in a narrow but tunable spectral range of visible light both for individual metadimers and for a periodic array of such particles. The electromagnetic fields scattered by the metadimers fundamentally differ from those created by electric dipoles. A metamaterial composed of such metadimers will therefore exhibit unusual optical properties.

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  • Received 3 April 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.035419

©2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

P. Grahn, A. Shevchenko, and M. Kaivola

  • Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, P.O. Box 13500, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland

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Issue

Vol. 86, Iss. 3 — 15 July 2012

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