Fano resonances at light scattering by an obstacle

Abstract

It is shown that elastic resonance scattering of light by a finite-size obstacle with weak dissipation is analogous to quantum scattering by a potential with quasi-discrete levels and exhibits Fano resonances. Localized plasmons (polaritons), exited in the obstacle by the incident light, are equivalent to the quasi-discrete levels, while the radiative decay of these excitations plays exactly the same role as tunnelling from the quasi-discrete levels for the quantum problem. Mie scattering of light by a spherical particle and an exactly solvable discrete model with nonlocal coupling simulating wave scattering in systems with reduced spatial dimensionality are discussed as examples.