Radiative toroidal dipole and anapole excitations in collectively responding arrays of atoms

Abstract

A toroidal dipole represents an often overlooked electromagnetic excitation distinct from the standard electric and magnetic multipole expansion. We show how a simple arrangement of strongly radiatively coupled atoms can be used to synthesize a toroidal dipole where the toroidal topology is generated by radiative transitions forming an effective poloidal electric current wound around a torus. We extend the protocol for methods to prepare a delocalized collective excitation mode consisting of a synthetic lattice of such toroidal dipoles and a non-radiating, yet oscillating charge-current configuration, dynamic anapole, for which the far-field radiation of a toroidal dipole is identically canceled by an electric dipole.