Mie Voids as broadband directional light sources

Abstract

The Kerker effect arises from the interference between electric and magnetic multipoles, enabling directional light scattering in nanophotonics. However, conventional dielectric and plasmonic nanoparticles can only act as Kerker sources in narrow spectral regions, limiting their applicability. Here, we show that the recently discovered Mie voids overcome this limitation by supporting a broadband generalized Kerker effect spanning the whole visible range. We investigate the optical response of Mie voids under both plane-wave and dipolar excitation. For plane waves, the voids preferentially scatter light in the forward direction. Under dipolar excitation, the resulting radiation emission towards the void and beyond is suppressed due to destructive interference between the dipole field with the directional scattered field of the void. These findings identify Mie voids as versatile broadband directional sources, opening pathways for antenna design and energy harvesting at the nanoscale.