Abstract
Naturally available optical materials are known to provide a wide variety of electric responses, spanning from positive to negative permittivity values. In contrast, owing to drastically modified conduction properties at the microscopic level, at such high frequencies magnetism and conductivity are very challenging to realize. This implies that extreme (high or low) values of permittivity, although highly desirable for a wide range of optical applications, are difficult to realize in practice. Here, we suggest the design of an engineered resonant nanoparticle composed of two conjoined hemispheres, whose optical response may be changed at will from an ideal electric conductor to an ideal magnetic conductor. Near the nanoparticle internal resonant frequency, we derive a closed-form solution that describes the electromagnetic response of this nanoparticle, showing how its light interaction may become dramatically dependent on the local field polarization, passing through all possible impedance values (from zero to infinity) by a simple mechanical or polarization rotation. Considering realistic frequency dispersion and loss in optical materials, we further show that these concepts may be applied to different geometries, with possibility for future experimental feasibility. We forecast various applications of this geometry as an optical nanoswitch, a novel nanocircuit element and as a building block for novel optical metamaterials.
Highlights
Available optical materials are known to provide a wide variety of electric responses, spanning from positive to negative permittivity values
We suggest the design of an engineered resonant nanoparticle composed of two conjoined hemispheres, whose optical response may be changed at will from an ideal electric conductor to an ideal magnetic conductor
Near the nanoparticle internal resonant frequency, we derive a closed-form solution that describes the electromagnetic response of this nanoparticle, showing how its light interaction may become dramatically dependent on the local field polarization, passing through all possible impedance values by a simple mechanical or polarization rotation
Summary
Equations (8) contain interesting information about the anomalous electromagnetic behavior of this resonant nanoparticle. It is interesting to notice that the same potential and field distributions may be obtained with a simple hemisphere of permittivity −ε0 In this special situation, the nanoparticle may enter into resonance with the surrounding ‘complementary’ hemisphere in the background, as a sort of hemispherical superlens with its focus at the origin, supporting an analogous effect of drastic dependence of its optical response on the orientation of E0. The resonant sphere smoothly changes its optical response as ‘seen’ by the impinging field, varying the effective permittivity of the nanoparticle from 0 to ∞ as a function of the angle that the external electric field vector forms with its internal plasmonic interface This phenomenon may be of extreme interest for a variety of optical applications, considering the fact that such extreme values of constitutive parameters are challenging to realize naturally in practice, especially at these high frequencies [5, 6]. This provides a novel form of field distribution on this spherical surface
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