The ultimate absorption at light scattering by a single obstacle

Abstract

Based on fundamental properties of light scattering by a particle we reveal the existence of the ultimate upper limit for the light absorption by any partial mode. First, we obtain this result for scattering of a plane wave by a symmetric spherical or infinite cylindrical structure of an arbitrary radius. Then, we generalize it to an arbitrary finite obstacle. Importantly, the result is true for any polarization, any angle of incidence of the plane wave and any type of the structure (homogeneous, stratified, or with smoothly variable refractive index). The corresponding maximal partial cross- section is a universal quantity, which does not depend on the optical constants of the scatterer its radius, and even its shape.

6 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Electromagnetic multipole theory for optical nanomaterials
• Geometric interpretations for resonances of plasmonic nanoparticles

Cited by in corpus (18)

• All-dielectric thermonanophotonics
• Fundamental Limits of Optical Force and Torque
• Global $\mathbb{T}$ operator bounds on electromagnetic scattering: Upper bounds on far-field cross sections
• Fundamental Limits to the Coupling between Light and 2D Polaritons by Small Scatterers
• Nonlinear optical heating of all-dielectric super-cavity: efficient light-to-heat conversion through giant thermorefractive bistability
• Near-resonant light scattering by a sub-wavelength ensemble of identical atoms
• Heuristic Methods and Performance Bounds for Photonic Design
• Optimal nanoparticle forces, torques, and illumination fields
• Thermo-optical reshaping of SHG emission from dimerall-dielectric nanoresonators
• Superabsorbing metamaterial wormhole: Physical modeling and wave interaction effects
• Broadband microwave absorption by logarithmic spiral metasurface
• An intriguing branching of the maximum position of the absorption cross section in Mie theory explained
• Q-factor and absorption enhancement for plasmonic anisotropic nanoparticles
• Optical Supertorque Induced by Mie-Resonant Modes
• Physical limits on electromagnetic response
• $\mathbb{T}$-Operator Limits on Optical Communication: Metaoptics, Computation, and Input-Output Transformations
• Past and present trends in the development of the pattern-formation theory: domain walls and quasicrystals
• Degeneracy of cross sections in scattering of light