Molding the flow of light with a magnetic field: plasmonic cloaking and directional scattering

Abstract

We investigate electromagnetic scattering and plasmonic cloaking in a system composed by a dielectric cylinder coated with a magneto-optical shell. In the long-wavelength limit we demonstrate that the application of an external magnetic field can not only switch on and off the cloaking mechanism but also mitigate losses, as the absorption cross-section is shown to be minimal precisely at the cloaking operation frequency band. We also show that the angular distribution of the scattered radiation can be effectively controlled by applying an external magnetic field, allowing for a swift change in the scattering pattern. By demonstrating that these results are feasible with realistic, existing magneto-optical materials, such as graphene epitaxially grown on SiC, we suggest that magnetic fields could be used as an effective, versatile external agent to tune plasmonic cloaks and to dynamically control electromagnetic scattering in an unprecedented way, we hope that these results may find use in disruptive photonic technologies.