High Quality Factor Toroidal Resonances in Dielectric Metasurfaces

Toroidal moment is an electromagnetic excitation that lies outside the familiar picture of electric and magnetic multipoles. It has recently been a topic of intense research in the fields of nanophotonics and metamaterials due to its weakly radiating nature and its ability to confine electromagnetic energy. Among extensive studies on toroidal moments and their applications, high quality factor (Q) toroidal resonances have been experimentally realized only in a very limited set of geometries and wavelengths. In this study, we demonstrate that a metasurface consisting of arrays of hollow dielectric cuboids supports a high Q-factor resonances at near-infrared and visible wavelengths due to the destructive interference between toroidal dipoles and magnetic quadrupoles. Using silicon as the high index dielectric, an experimental Q-factor of 728 is realized at a wavelength of 1505 nm, which is one of the highest values reported in the near-infrared using a dielectric metasurface. Importantly, our resonator geometry enables very efficient coupling of the toroidal resonance to the environment. This makes our metasurface design useful for refractometric sensing, where we measure a sensitivity of 161 nm per refractive index unit with a line width of 2.01 nm, efficiently distinguishing an index change of less than 0.02. We also find that a metasurface made of a relatively low-index dielectric, titanium dioxide (n < 2.4), is also capable of supporting the same toroidal mode with an observed Q-factor of 160 at visible wavelengths. With the versatility and robustness that dielectric metasurfaces provide, toroidal resonances are expected to be a powerful tool for investigating strong light–matter interaction and nonlinear phenomena at the nanoscale.