Multipolar engineering of subwavelength dielectric particles for scattering enhancement

Abstract: Electromagnetic scattering on subwavelength structures keeps attracting attention owing to abroad range of possible applications, where this phenomenon is in use. Fundamental limits of scattering cross-section, being well understood in spherical geometries, are overlooked in cases of low-symmetry resonators. Here, we revise the notion of superscattering and link this property with symmetry groups of the scattering potential. We demonstrate pathways to spectrally overlap several eigenmodes of a resonator in a way they interfere constructively and enhance the scattering cross-section. As a particular example, we demonstrate spectral overlapping of several electric and magnetic modes in a subwavelength entirely homogeneous ceramic resonator. The optimized structures show the excess of a dipolar scattering cross-section limit for a sphere up to a factor of four. The revealed rules, which link symmetry groups with fundamental scattering limits, allow performing and assessing designs of subwavelength supperscatterers, which can find a use in label-free imaging, compact antennas, long-range radio frequency identification, and many other fields.