All-dielectric reciprocal bianisotropic nanoparticles

The study of high-index dielectric nanoparticles currently attracts a lot of attention. They do not suffer from absorption but promise to provide control of the properties of light comparable to plasmonic nanoparticles. To further advance the field, it is important to identify versatile dielectric nanoparticles with unconventional properties. Here, we show that breaking the symmetry of an all-dielectric nanoparticle leads to a geometrically tunable magnetoelectric coupling, i.e., an omega-type bianisotropy. The suggested nanoparticle exhibits different backscatterings and, as an interesting consequence, different optical scattering forces for opposite illumination directions. An array of such nanoparticles provides different reflection phases when illuminated from opposite directions. With a proper geometrical tuning, this bianisotropic nanoparticle is capable of providing a 2π phase change in the reflection spectrum while possessing a rather large and constant amplitude. This allows the creation of reflectarrays with near-perfect transmission out of the resonance band due to the absence of a usually employed metallic screen.