Reciprocity Violation for Mie Scatterers at the Interface and a Scattering Solar Concentrator

Abstract

It is shown that reciprocity of the optical path can be violated through asymmetric strength coupling via near-field from resonant Mie scatterers to total internal reflection modes in a dielectric slab. Numerical simulations for silicon nanospheres separated by a nanogap from the glass substrate reveal that at least two orders of magnitude rectification ratio can be realized for such an optical diode configuration. Implementation to a solar light harvesting device, a scattering solar concentrator, is discussed, indicating a similar efficiency is achievable as for the state-of-the-art devices based on luminescence.