Transverse Scattering from Nanodimers Tunable with Generalized Cylindrical Vector Beams

Achieving directional control of optical antennas is critically important for the design of flexible interconnects between free-space optics and on-chip photonic circuitry. Here, a new concept of tunable transverse scattering of light from dielectric nanodimer antennas is suggested theoretically and demonstrated experimentally based on a selective excitation of the specific electromagnetic multipoles with the simultaneous suppression of both forward and backward scatterings. Importantly, it is revealed that the direction of the transverse scattering from nanodimers can be steered actively by varying the vectorial properties of the generalized cylindrical beams, and this new functionality in the experiment is demonstrated.