Surface-pinned nonsingular topologically charged defects in nanoplasmonics

Abstract

We discuss surface-pinned, topologically charged, nonsingular defects (SD) in light scattering by a plasmonic object. They follow from exact Maxwell boundary conditions and are purely topological---unaffected by surface forces. At optical frequencies, in (quasi) 2D, they appear in the electric and Poynting vector fields for $H^{(z)}$ polarization, not for $E^{(z)}$. Exact solutions for a circular cylinder reveal topological charge-conserving bifurcations involving SDs with bulk singularities or SDs alone, and contraction of defect regions under loss.

4 pages, 4 figures, 2 Supplemental Materials