Extreme Light Confinement Mediated by the Transverse Kerker Effect
Abstract Dielectric nanoparticles can be engineered to scatter light predominantly in the transverse direction, perpendicular to the incident plane wave’s propagation direction, a phenomenon known as the transverse Kerker effect. Although complete cancellation of forward scattering from a single object is forbidden by the optical theorem, we show that a single photonic mode can provide an ideal transverse Kerker effect. When combining several nanoparticles to form a metasurface, the mode evolves into an accidental bound state in the continuum. This enables polarization-independent quasi bound states in the continuum whose quality factors are tunable without symmetry breaking. We experimentally demonstrate our concept in the visible, achieving the first polarization-independent bound state in the continuum without Brillouin-zone folding. These modes maintain large quality factors over a broader region of momentum space than conventional bound states in the continuum. Our results establish a platform for realizing ultranarrow resonances free of conventional design constraints.
Authors
- Andreas Tittl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3191-7164)
- Adrià Canós Valero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3870-6351)
- Angana Bhattacharya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6195-7306)
- Sergei Gladyshev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3855-1601)
- Sebastian A. Schulz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5169-0337)
- Peter Banzer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6336-6953)
- Dmytro Gryb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0632-0238)
- Connor Heimig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6820-2157)
- Thomas Weiss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4991-6779)
- Tao Jiang
Institutions
- University of Waterloo (CA)
- University of Graz (AT)
- University of St Andrews (GB)
- Nawi Graz (AT)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- Hamburg University of Technology (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nano Letters
- Published
- 2026-11-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6c02622
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.88
Funders
- Solar Technologies go Hybrid
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Latvijas Zinātnes Padome
- Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
- European Research Council
- Center for NanoScience, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- HORIZON EUROPE European Innovation Council