Magnetic dipole ordering in resonant dielectric metasurfaces

Abstract: Artificial magnetism at optical frequencies can be realized in metamaterials composed of periodic arrays of subwavelength elements, also called "meta-atoms". Optically-induced magnetic moments can be arranged in both unstaggered structures, naturally associated with ferromagnetic (FM) order, or staggered structures, linked correspondingly to antiferromagnetic (AFM) order. Here we demonstrate that such magnetic dipole orders of the lattices of meta-atoms can appear in low-symmetry Mie-resonant metasurfaces where each asymmetric dielectric (non-magnetic) meta-atom supports a localized trapped mode. We reveal that these all-dielectric resonant metasurfaces possess not only strong optical magnetic response but also they demonstrate a significant polarization rotation of the propagating electromagnetic waves at both FM and AFM resonances. We confirm these findings experimentally by measuring directly the spectral characteristics of different modes excited in all-dielectric metasurfaces, and mapping near-field patterns of the electromagnetic fields at the microwave frequencies.