Resonances in light scattering from nonequilibrium dipole pairs

Abstract

We identify a fundamentally new class of resonances in light scattering from a pair of point-like electric dipoles. These resonances arise from multiple scattering response and correspond to poles of the two-particle Green function. The realization of exact resonances requires violation of the optical theorem, which holds in equilibrium systems but can be violated under nonequilibrium conditions, without violating causality. As a concrete example, we show that a pumped two-level atom can realize the required polarizability and access the exact resonance regime. Our results for one electric and one magnetic dipole show how resonances can amplify a weak magnetic response of a single dipole to the incident field. In equilibrium systems, only approximate resonances with finite amplification are possible. Using the Drude model for metallic nanoparticles, we show that while equilibrium resonances enhance the scattering, they never exceed the optimal single-dipole response.