Toroidal dipolar excitation and macroscopic electromagnetic properties of metamaterials

Abstract

The toroidal dipole is a peculiar electromagnetic excitation that can not be presented in terms of standard electric and magnetic multipoles. A static toroidal dipole has been shown to lead to violation of parity in atomic spectra and many other unusual electromagnetic phenomena. The existence of electromagnetic resonances of toroidal nature was experimentally demonstrated only recently, first in the microwave metamaterials, and then at optical frequencies, where they could be important in spectroscopy analysis of a wide class of media with constituents of toroidal symmetry, such as complex organic molecules, fullerenes, bacteriophages, etc. Despite the experimental progress in studying toroidal resonances, no direct link has yet been established between microscopic toroidal excitations and macroscopic scattering characteristics of the medium. To address this essential gap in the electromagnetic theory, we have developed an analytical approach for calculating the transmissivity and reflectivity of thin slabs of materials that exhibit toroidal dipolar excitations.