Broadband zero-backward and near-zero-forward scattering by metallo-dielectric core-shell nanoparticles

Efficient control of optical radiation at subwavelength scales plays important roles for various applications. Dielectric nanoparticles or dielectric shells with a large refractive index of n ~ 3–4, which are only achievable for limited semiconductors, are involved in most designs so far to control the scattering by overlapping the electric and magnetic dipolar modes of the same magnitude. Here we propose a new mechanism based on the interplay between dipolar and quadrupolar resonances of different amplitudes, both magnetic and electric, to suppress the backward scattering or the forward scattering by using metallo-dielectric core-shell nanoparticles with a dielectric shell layer having a refractive index of n = 2.0. We demonstrate that broadband zero-backward or near-zero-forward scattering can be achieved by optimizing the structural parameters. We also demonstrate that the core-shell nanoparticles with identical dielectric shells but metal cores with various sizes are able to suppress the backward or forward scattering at the same wavelength, thus revealing a large tolerance to fabrication errors induced by the size distributions in the metal cores. These features make the proposed core-shell nanoparticles beyond the dipole limit more easily realized in practical experiments.