Multipole resonances and directional scattering by hyperbolic-media antennas

Abstract

We propose to use optical antennas made out of natural hyperbolic material hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), and we demonstrate that this medium is a promising alternative to plasmonic and all-dielectric materials for realizing efficient subwavelength scatterers and metasurfaces based on them. We theoretically show that particles out of hyperbolic medium possess different resonances enabled by the support of high-k waves and their reflection from the particle boundaries. Among those resonances, there are electric quadrupole excitations, which cause magnetic resonance of the particle similar to what occurs in high-refractive-index particles. Excitations of the particle resonances are accompanied by the drop in the reflection from nanoparticle array to near-zero value, which can be ascribed to resonant Kerker effect. If particles are arranged in the spacer array with period d, narrow lattice resonances are possible at wavelength d, d/2, d/3 etc. This provides an additional degree of control and possibility to excite resonances at the wavelength defined by the array spacing. For the hBN particle with hyperbolic dispersion, we show that the full range of the resonances, including magnetic resonance and a decrease of reflection, is possible.