From non- to super-radiating manipulation of a dipolar emitter coupled to a toroidal metastructure

Opt Express. 2015 Nov 16;23(23):29384-9. doi: 10.1364/OE.23.029384.

Abstract

Toroidal dipolar response in a metallic metastructure, composed of double flat rings, is utilized to manipulate the radiation pattern of a single dipolar emitter (e.g., florescent molecule/atom or quantum dot). Strong Fano-type radiation spectrum can be obtained when these two coupling dipoles are spatially overlapped, leading to significant radiation suppression (so-called nonradiating source) attributed to the dipolar destructive interference. Moreover, this nonradiating configuration will become a directionally super-radiating nanoantenna after a radial displacement of the emitter with respect to the toroidal flat-ring geometry, which emits linearly polarized radiation with orders of power enhancement in a particular orientation. The demonstrated radiation characteristics from a toroidal-dipole-mediated dipolar emitter indicate a promising manipulation capability of the dipolar emission source by intriguing toroidal dipolar response.