Optomechanical control of light scattering

Nanophotonics The development of nanophotonic technology requires the ability to control and manipulate the directional scattering of light. Poshakinskiy and Poddubny show, theoretically, that “trembling” dielectric nanoparticles could be used to control the direction of scattering. As the dielectric particle possesses an electric dipole, the oscillating (or trembling) motion induces an artificial magnetic resonance within the particle. These electric and induced magnetic dipoles can then interfere with the scattered light, thus providing a mechanism for controlling the relative amount of light scattered in the forward and backward directions. As the optomechanical technique is general, the authors suggest that it could be applied to control the light-matter interactions in a variety of materials systems. Phys. Rev. X 9 , 011008 (2019).