Interaction of light with subwavelength particles: Revealing the physics of the electric dipole moment in the classical scattering problem

Abstract

Scattering problems are the classical tools for modeling of light-matter interaction. In this paper, we investigate the solution of the dipole scattering problem under different incident radiation.s In particular, we compare the two cases of incident plane and spherically incoming fields. With this comparison, we disclose the two distinct groups of current-sourced and current-free scattered fields, which exhibit independent dynamics and dissimilar effects of the scatterer. We demonstrate how these fields by interfering each other make the resultant electric dipole moment of the scattered fields resonant and, thus, give rise to all the spectral features observed in the classical solution for dipole scattering of light.