Optothermal Needle-Free Injection of Vaterite Nanocapsules.

The propulsion and acceleration of nanoparticles with light have both fundamental and applied significance across many disciplines. Needle-free injection of biomedical nano cargoes into living tissues is among the examples. Here a new physical mechanism of laser-induced particle acceleration is explored, based on abnormal optothermal expansion of mesoporous vaterite cargoes.

Nonlinear chaotic dynamics in nonlocal plasmonic core-shell nanoparticle dimer.

Plasmonic nanoparticles can be employed as a promising integrated platform for lumped optical nanoelements with unprecedentedly high integration capacity and efficient nanoscale ultrafast nonlinear functionality. Further minimizing the size of plasmonic nanoelements will lead to a rich variety of nonlocal optical effects due to the nonlocal nature of electrons in plasmonic materials. In this work, we theoretically investigate the nonlinear chaotic dynamics of the plasmonic core-shell nanoparticle dimer consisting of a nonlocal plasmonic core and a Kerr-type nonlinear shell at nanometer scale.

Light distribution in fat cell layers at physiological temperatures.

Adipose tissue (AT) optical properties for physiological temperatures and in vivo conditions are still insufficiently studied. The AT is composed mainly of packed cells close to spherical shape. It is a possible reason that AT demonstrates a very complicated spatial structure of reflected or transmitted light.

Special scattering regimes for conical all-dielectric nanoparticles.

All-dielectric nanophotonics opens a venue for a variety of novel phenomena and scattering regimes driven by unique optical effects in semiconductor and dielectric nanoresonators. Their peculiar optical signatures enabled by simultaneous electric and magnetic responses in the visible range pave a way for a plenty of new applications in nano-optics, biology, sensing, etc. In this work, we investigate fabrication-friendly truncated cone resonators and achieve several important scattering regimes due to the inherent property of cones-broken symmetry along the main axis without involving complex geometries or structured beams.

Optical pulling and pushing forces via Bloch surface waves.

For flexible tailoring of optical forces, as well as for extraordinary optomechanical effects, additional degrees of freedom should be introduced into a system. Here, we demonstrate that photonic crystals are a versatile platform for optical manipulation due to both Bloch surface waves (BSWs) and the complex character of the reflection coefficient paving a way for controlled optomechanical interactions. We demonstrate enhanced pulling and pushing transversal optical forces acting on a single dipolar bead above a one-dimensional photonic crystal due to directional excitation of BSWs.

Controlling wave fronts with tunable disordered non-Hermitian multilayers.

Unique and flexible properties of non-Hermitian photonic systems attract ever-increasing attention via delivering a whole bunch of novel optical effects and allowing for efficient tuning light-matter interactions on nano- and microscales. Together with an increasing demand for the fast and spatially compact methods of light governing, this peculiar approach paves a broad avenue to novel optical applications. Here, unifying the approaches of disordered metamaterials and non-Hermitian photonics, we propose a conceptually new and simple architecture driven by disordered loss-gain multilayers and, therefore, providing a powerful tool to control both the passage time and the wave-front shape of incident light with different switching times.

Non-isolated sources of electromagnetic radiation by multipole decomposition for photonic quantum technologies on a chip with nanoscale apertures.

The creation of single photon sources on a chip is a mid-term milestone on the road to chip-scale quantum computing. An in-depth understanding of the extended multipole decomposition of non-isolated sources of electromagnetic radiation is not only relevant for a microscopic description of fundamental phenomena, such as light propagation in a medium, but also for emerging applications such as single-photon sources. To design single photon emitters on a chip, we consider a ridge dielectric waveguide perturbed with a cylindrical inclusion.

Tailored optical potentials for Cs atoms above waveguides with focusing dielectric nano-antenna.

Tuning the near field using all-dielectric nano-antennas offers a promising approach for trapping atoms, which could enable strong single-atom-photon coupling. Here we report the numerical study of an optical trapping of a single Cs atom above a waveguide with a silicon nano-antenna, which produces a trapping potential for atoms in a chip-scale configuration. Using counter-propagating incident fields, bichromatically detuned from the atomic cesium D-lines, we numerically investigate the dependence of the optical potential on the nano-antenna geometry.

Nanovortex-Driven All-Dielectric Optical Diffusion Boosting and Sorting Concept for Lab-on-a-Chip Platforms.

The ever-growing field of microfluidics requires precise and flexible control over fluid flows at reduced scales. Current constraints demand a variety of controllable components to carry out several operations inside microchambers and microreactors. In this context, brand-new nanophotonic approaches can significantly enhance existing capabilities providing unique functionalities via finely tuned light-matter interactions.

Biological Kerker Effect Boosts Light Collection Efficiency in Plants.

Being the polymorphs of calcium carbonate (CaCO), vaterite and calcite have attracted a great deal of attention as promising biomaterials for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. Furthermore, they are important biogenic minerals, enabling living organisms to reach specific functions. In nature, vaterite and calcite monocrystals typically form self-assembled polycrystal micro- and nanoparticles, also referred to as spherulites.

Transverse Scattering and Generalized Kerker Effects in All-Dielectric Mie-Resonant Metaoptics.

All-dielectric resonant nanophotonics lies at the heart of modern optics and nanotechnology due to the unique possibilities to control scattering of light from high-index dielectric nanoparticles and metasurfaces. One of the important concepts of dielectric Mie-resonant nanophotonics is associated with the Kerker effect that drives the unidirectional scattering of light from nanoantennas and Huygens metasurfaces. Here we suggest and demonstrate experimentally a novel effect manifested in the nearly complete simultaneous suppression of both forward and backward scattered fields.

Enhanced absorption in all-dielectric metasurfaces due to magnetic dipole excitation.

All-dielectric nanophotonics lies at a forefront of nanoscience and technology as it allows to control light at the nanoscale using its electric and magnetic components. Bulk silicon does not experience any magnetic response, nevertheless, we demonstrate that the metasurface made of silicon parallelepipeds allows to excite the magnetic dipole moment leading to the broadening and enhancement of the absorption. Our investigations are underpinned by the numerical predictions and the experimental verifications.

New 2D graphene hybrid composites as an effective base element of optical nanodevices.

For the first time, we estimated perspectives for using a new 2D carbon nanotube (CNT)-graphene hybrid nanocomposite as a base element of a new generation o optical nanodevices. The 2D CNT-graphene hybrid nanocomposite was modelled by two graphene monolayers between which single-walled CNTs with different diameters were regularly arranged at different distances from each other. Spectra of the real and imaginary parts of the diagonal elements of the surface conductivity tensor for four topological models of the hybrid nanocomposite have been obtained.

Photonic hook: a new curved light beam.

It is well known that electromagnetic radiation propagates along a straight line, but this common sense was broken by the artificial curved light-the Airy beam. In this Letter, we demonstrate a new type of curved light beam besides the Airy beam, the so-called "photonic hook." This photonic hook is a curved high-intensity focus by a dielectric trapezoid particle illuminated by a plane wave.

'Photonic Hook' based optomechanical nanoparticle manipulator.

Specialized electromagnetic fields can be used for nanoparticle manipulation along a specific path, allowing enhanced transport and control over the particle's motion. In this paper, we investigate the optical forces produced by a curved photonic jet, otherwise known as the "photonic hook", created using an asymmetric cuboid. In our case, this cuboid is formed by appending a triangular prism to one side of a cube.

Resonant forward scattering of light by high-refractive-index dielectric nanoparticles with toroidal dipole contribution.

In this Letter, we demonstrate and investigate the Kerker-type effect in high-index dielectric nanoparticles for which the third-order multipoles give a considerable contribution to the light scattering process. It is shown that the Kerker-type effect (strong suppression of the backward light scattering and, simultaneously, resonant forward light scattering) can be associated with the resonant excitation of a toroidal dipole moment in the system. This effect is realized due to the interference of the scattered waves generated by electric, magnetic, and toroidal dipole moments of high-index nanoparticles.

Scattering Forces within a Left-Handed Photonic Crystal.

Electromagnetic waves are known to exert optical forces on particles through radiation pressure. It was hypothesized previously that electromagnetic waves inside left-handed metamaterials produce negative radiation pressure. Here we numerically examine optical forces inside left-handed photonic crystals demonstrating negative refraction and reversed phase propagation.

Controlling electromagnetic scattering with wire metamaterial resonators.

Manipulation of radiation is required for enabling a span of electromagnetic applications. Since properties of antennas and scatterers are very sensitive to the surrounding environment, macroscopic artificially created materials are good candidates for shaping their characteristics. In particular, metamaterials enable controlling both dispersion and density of electromagnetic states, available for scattering from an object.

Enhancement of artificial magnetism via resonant bianisotropy.

All-dielectric "magnetic light" nanophotonics based on high refractive index nanoparticles allows controlling magnetic component of light at nanoscale without having high dissipative losses. The artificial magnetic optical response of such nanoparticles originates from circular displacement currents excited inside those structures and strongly depends on geometry and dispersion of optical materials. Here an approach for enhancing of magnetic response via resonant bianisotropy effect is proposed and analyzed.

Actio et reactio in optical binding.

The symmetry in action and reaction between interacting particulate matter breaks down when the interaction is mediated by an out-of-equilibrium environment. Nevertheless, even in this case, the space translational invariance still imposes the conservation of canonical momentum. Here we show that optical binding of an asymmetric material system can result in non-reciprocal interactions between constituents.