Backscattering enhancement of light by

nanoparticles positioned in localized optical

intensity peaks

Zhigang Chen, Xu Li, Allen Taflove, and Vadim Backman

We report what we believe to be a novel backscattering phenomenon associated with localized optical
intensity peaks (spanning as little as 43 nm) arising at the shadow-side surfaces of plane-wave-
illuminated dielectric microcylinders of noncircular cross sections. Namely, for nanometer-scale dielectric
particles positioned within the localized intensity peaks, their backscattering of visible light is enhanced
by several orders of magnitude relative to the case of isolated nanoparticles (i.e., Rayleigh scattering). The
positions of the localized intensity peaks can be quickly scanned along the microcylinder surface by
changing either the incident wavelength or angle. This combination of giant backscattering enhancement
of nanoparticles and ease and rapidity of scanning may present advantages relative to the use of fragile,
mechanically scanned, near-field probes. Potential applications include visible-light detection, charac-
terization, and manipulation of nanoparticles. © 2006 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: 290.1350, 290.5850, 290.5870, 170.0170.

1. Introduction modulated about the incident-field value by a small

In recent years, interest in the spatial distribution of scattered field. When the size parameter is much
electromagnetic intensity both within and in the greater than unity, i.e., the geometrical optics limit, a
near-field regions external to small particles has been particle can be envisioned as a thick lens. A spot (in
growing. This growing interest stems from progress the case of spherical lens) or line focus (in the case of
in near-field optics made by the development of both cylindrical lens) is located external to such a thick
experimental techniques and numerical methods for lens, with a size larger than one half wavelength of
calculations of near-field structures.1 It is clear that the incident light.
the curved surface of particles together with the in- For spheres and circular cylinders that have inter-
dex of refraction discontinuity at the interface alters mediate values of the size parameter between the
the spatial distribution of electromagnetic intensity Rayleigh and geometrical optics limits, exact calcu-
both within the particles and in the near-field regions lations for the spatial distribution of the internal and
external to the particles. When the size parameter of near-field intensities can be performed using the Mie
the particle (defined as x ⫽ 2␲a兾␭, where a is the theory.2– 4 However, for irregularly shaped particles,
characteristic dimension of the particle and ␭ is the their scattering properties cannot be obtained ana-
incident wavelength) is much less than unity, i.e., the lytically, and numerical methods for solving Max-
Rayleigh limit, the internal fields are uniformly dis- well’s equations are needed in such circumstances.5–7
tributed and the external near field is only slightly In this paper, using high-resolution finite-
difference time-domain8 (FDTD) modeling, we inves-
tigate the spatial distributions of the internal and
near-external optical intensities of noncircular dielec-
Z. Chen (z-chen@northwestern.edu) and A. Taflove are with the tric microcylinders. We have found that these spatial
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northwest- distributions can be significantly different from those
ern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208. X. Li and V. Backman
of circular dielectric cylinders.2,3,9 One prominent fea-
are with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwest-
ern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208.
ture is a set of highly localized nanoscale intensity
Received 23 May 2005; revised 3 August 2005; accepted 5 August peaks (NIPs) arising along the shadow-side surface of
2005. noncircular cylinders. Such NIPs can span as little as
0003-6935/06/040633-06$15.00/0 43 nm, and can enhance the backscattering of visible
© 2006 Optical Society of America light by nanometer-scale dielectric particles by sev-

1 February 2006 兾 Vol. 45, No. 4 兾 APPLIED OPTICS 633

Fig. 1. (Color online) (a) Illustration of optical NIPs, marked by an arrow, at the shadow-side surface of a plane-wave-illuminated
elliptical dielectric cylinder. The FDTD-calculated envelope of the sinusoidal steady-state intensity is visualized in linear scale. Light of
wavelength ␭ ⫽ 500 nm propagates from left to right. (b) Expanded view of NIPs at the shadow-side surface of the cylinder in (a).

eral orders of magnitude, which is a fundamental scattered light: the amount of light (for unit incident
dimensional increase relative to the Rayleigh back- intensity) scattered into a unit solid angle about a
scattering. In addition, we have found that the loca- given direction.
tions of the NIPs can be scanned tangentially along The perfectly matched layer absorbing boundary
the cylinder surface by changing either the incident condition9 is used in our FDTD simulations to effi-
wavelength or angle. This combination of giant back- ciently terminate the outer boundary of the compu-
scattering enhancement of nanoparticles and ease tational lattice. With the FDTD space lattice having
and rapidity of scanning may present advantages rel- a uniform square cell size of 1.25 nm (finer than
ative to the use of fragile, mechanically scanned, 1兾100 of a dielectric wavelength for all computer
near-field probes. Potential applications of this phe- runs), the results for the differential scattering cross
nomenon include visible-light detection, character- section agree with the exact solution to within
ization, and manipulation of nanoparticles. ⫾1.5 dB over the entire range of scattering angles for
2. Localized Nanoscale Intensity Peaks
all cases studied. Typical computational dynamic
ranges for this level of agreement are 60 dB.
By using high-resolution FDTD numerical solutions Having validated the FDTD numerical modeling
of Maxwell’s equations, we first study the internal procedure, we proceed to study in detail the internal
and near-external field distributions of plane-wave- and near-external field distribution of a plane-wave-
illuminated dielectric microcylinders of elliptical and illuminated homogeneous elliptical-cross-section di-
triangular cross sections. Previously, the FDTD electric cylinder. Figure 1 shows key results that
method has shown promise in calculating scattering
illustrate the spatial distribution of the internal and
by realistic particles because of its ability to model
near-field intensity of an elliptical dielectric cylinder.
complex surface shapes and internal structures.5–7
In this case, we consider an infinite dielectric ellipti-
The two-dimensional (2D) transverse magnetic (TM)
cal cylinder having axes of length 5 and 2.5 ␮m and a
case is considered in the present paper, i.e., wherein
the incident magnetic field vector is perpendicular to refractive index n ⫽ 3.5 surrounded by a vacuum
the axis of the cylinder. medium of a refractive index 1.0. The cylinder is nor-
Our FDTD computer code has been verified by cal- mally illuminated by a rightward-propagating sinu-
culating the differential scattering cross section of soidal plane wave of wavelength ␭ ⫽ 500 nm.
several homogeneous circular dielectric cylinders and Figure 1(a) visualizes the FDTD-calculated enve-
comparing these results to the exact analytical solu- lope of the sinusoidal steady-state intensity (defined
tion based on the separation-of-variables method. In as the square of the optical electric field) in linear
terms of the scattered intensity Is, the incident inten- scale, where the incident intensity is normalized to be
sity Ii, and the distance r from the scatterer to the unity. It is clear that the intensity distribution of the
detector, the differential scattering cross section ␴d is elliptical cylinder is significantly different from that
defined as of the corresponding circular cylinder, which can
have a localized jetlike intensity pattern.10 Further-
more, it is evident that a series of strong NIPs exist at
␴d ⫽ r2Is兾Ii. (1) the shadow-side surface of the cylinder, one of which
is marked with an arrow. Figure 1(b) shows an ex-
Physically, it specifies the angular distribution of the panded view of several NIPs. The strongest NIP,

634 APPLIED OPTICS 兾 Vol. 45, No. 4 兾 1 February 2006

Fig. 2. (Color online) (a) Illustration of optical NIPs, marked by an arrow, at the shadow-side surface of a plane-wave-illuminated
triangular dielectric cylinder. The FDTD-calculated envelope of the sinusoidal steady-state intensity is visualized in linear scale. Light of
wavelength ␭ ⫽ 500 nm propagates from left to right. (b) Expanded view of NIPs in (a).

marked with an arrow in Fig. 1, has a full width at case of large variations of the spatial frequency. How-
half-maximum (FWHM) span of about 80 nm in the ever, the NIPs distinguish themselves from NSOM in
tangential direction along the cylinder surface. the following sense: The NIPs emerge on smooth di-
The size of the NIPs shown in Fig. 1 can be reduced electric surfaces, whereas NSOM takes advantage of
by adjusting the eccentricity of the elliptical cylinder. evanescent wave components emerging at sharp
Our parametric studies reveal that a NIP spanning metal tips. As a result, the NIPs avoid the manufac-
only about 56 nm can be obtained using an elliptical turing and operating difficulties inherent in NSOM
cylinder having axes of length 6 and 2.5 ␮m and re- using fragile nanometer-scale light-emitting tips.
fractive index of n ⫽ 3.5 embedded within an infinite We also repeat similar studies for a plane-wave-
vacuum medium of refractive index 1.0. illuminated dielectric cylinder having a triangular
According to the uncertainty relation of the Fourier cross section of side dimension 4.5 ␮m. Figure 2
transform, the variation of spatial frequency ⌬k and shows the internal and near-external intensity dis-
the variation of real space ⌬r satisfy tributions of the triangular dielectric cylinder in lin-
ear scale. Here the NIP, marked with an arrow, spans
⌬k · ⌬r ⱖ ␲, (2) only 43 nm in the tangential direction along the cyl-
inder surface.
where ⌬k ⫽ 2k ⫽ 4␲兾␭. Therefore, ⌬r has a minimum
3. Backscattering Enhancement of Light by
given by
Nanoparticles
Now we observe how the backscattering cross section
⌬r ⱖ ␲兾⌬k ⫽ ␭兾4, (3)
of the dielectric microcylinder is perturbed if a nano-
particle is introduced into the NIP of Fig. 1. The
that is, the minimum size of a beam synthesized by change in the backscattering cross section of the mi-
the superposition of optical waves is limited to the crocylinder caused by the nanoparticle placed at the
order of ␭. We note that this is the origin of the NIP is defined as the enhanced backscattering cross
diffraction limit. We observe that, considering the section of the nanoparticle. We first calculate the dif-
wavelength of the incident light in the surrounding ferential scattering cross section of the combined sys-
medium, the NIPs have sizes of tens of nanometers tem of the microcylinder and nanoparticle where a
and are well below the diffraction limit given by Eq. nanoparticle is placed in the NIP. This differential
(3). However, if we instead consider the wavelength scattering cross section is denoted as ␴m⫹n. We also
inside the dielectric microcylinder, the NIP sizes are calculate the differential scattering cross section of
comparable with the diffraction limit. In this sense, the microcylinder alone, ␴m. The perturbation in the
an analogy can be drawn between the NIPs and solid differential scattering cross section of the microcylin-
immersion microscopy,11 which takes advantage of der introduced by the nanoparticle is thereof defined
the large optical index of a solid immersion lens ob- as
jective.
Similar to the near-field scanning optical micros-
copy (NSOM),12 the subdiffraction-limit feature of the ⌬␴ ⫽ ⱍ␴m⫹n ⫺ ␴mⱍ. (4)
NIPs is due to the presence of evanescent wave com-
ponents, which can be understood from Eq. (3) in the Figures 3(a) and 3(b) graph ⌬␴ within ⫾10° of

1 February 2006 兾 Vol. 45, No. 4 兾 APPLIED OPTICS 635

 Fig. 4. FDTD numerical results illustrating the backscattering
enhancement factor as a function of dimension s of dielectric nano-
particles. An n ⫽ 1.5 dielectric nanoparticle of dimension s is
inserted at the center of the NIP at the surface of the cylinder
shown in Fig. 1.

collect the scattered signal at the exact backscatter-

ing direction.
From Figs. 3(a) and 3(b) we see that the effective
backscattering cross section of each nanoparticle is
enhanced by several orders of magnitude due to com-
plex composite mutual interactions of the dielectric
microcylinder and the nanoparticle positioned in the
NIP. Specifically, the backscattering enhancement is
on the order of magnitude of 103 for the 10 nm par-
ticle and 102 for the 20 nm particle. The intensity
scales in Figs. 1 and 2 are linear. It is evident that the
Fig. 3. FDTD numerical results illustrating NIP-enhanced back- enhancement of backscattering is much greater than
scattering of light by dielectric nanoparticles. An n ⫽ 1.5 dielectric
the field enhancement due solely to the microcylin-
nanoparticle of dimension s is located at the center of the NIP at
the surface of the cylinder shown in Fig. 1. (a) Absolute value of the
der. Therefore the effective backscattering of the
change of the differential scattering cross section within ⫾10° of nearby nanoparticle is enhanced by the complex com-
the backscatter of the cylinder for s ⫽ 10 nm compared with the posite mutual interactions between the nanoparticle
differential scattering cross section of the isolated nanoparticle. (b) and microcylinder. The nanoparticle is first excited
Repeated studies of (a) for a nanoparticle of dimension s by the NIP emerging from the microcylinder, and its
⫽ 20 nm. scattering intensity is elevated by one order of mag-
nitude, as determined by the intensity of the NIP.
The fields reradiated by the NIP-excited nanoparticle
interact with the normal electromagnetic modes of
backscatter when a nanoparticle 共n ⫽ 1.5兲 of dimen- the microcylinder. This interaction acts to modify the
sion s ⫽ 10 nm and s ⫽ 20 nm, respectively, are scattering properties of the nanoparticle in such a
located at the center of the NIP (solid curve). These way as to elevate its backscattered intensity by ad-
figures also graph the corresponding differential scat- ditional orders of magnitude.
tering cross section of the isolated nanoparticle We note that, if the nanoparticle is placed at a
(dashed line). We note that the differential scattering minimum in the shadow region, it causes no change
cross section of a nanoparticle is greatly enhanced in the scattering cross section of the microcylinder.
when it is placed at a NIP. The magnitude of this Our further research has shown that, as the nano-
enhancement depends on the scattering angle and is particle is moved away from the center of the NIP, the
most significant at an angular cone of about 30° cen- backscattering enhancement decreases with the de-
tering the exact backscattering direction. However, crease of the intensity of the NIP. The nanoparticle
the scattering enhancement effect diminishes dra- alone is effectively invisible. In the case of NSOM, a
matically at scattering angles beyond this angular metal-coated dielectric tip is interposed between the
cone. Therefore we term it backscattering enhance- nanoparticle and the observer, allowing the nanopar-
ment based on the fact that the enhancement centers ticle to be sensed. In the present NIPs technique, a
the exact backscattering direction and it is easier to dielectric cylinder is similarly interposed between the

636 APPLIED OPTICS 兾 Vol. 45, No. 4 兾 1 February 2006

Fig. 5. (Color online) Effects of the perturbing incident wavelength and angle on locations of optical NIPs at the shadow-side surface of
a plane-wave-illuminated elliptical cylinder. The FDTD-calculated envelope of the sinusoidal steady-state intensity is visualized. (a) The
solid curve corresponds to the incident wavelength of 500 nm whereas the red curve corresponds to the incident wavelength of 525 nm.
(b) The solid curve corresponds to the incident angle of 0°, whereas the red curve corresponds to the incident angle of 13°.

nanoparticle and the observer to allow detection. For where ␴n represents the differential scattering cross
a 10 nm dielectric particle placed at a NIP, the per- section of the isolated nanoparticle. From Fig. 4 we
turbation of the backscattering cross section of the observe that the NIP created by the much larger
microcylinder discussed here is about 0.3% of that of microcylinder provides a significant dimensional in-
the microcylinder without nanoparticle. Such a per- crease in the effective backscattering cross section of
turbation is within the dynamic range of available the nanoparticle relative to the case where the nano-
instruments. particle is isolated (i.e., Rayleigh scattering). The
From Figs. 3(a) and 3(b) we also see that the dy- backscattering cross section of light by particles of
namic range of the enhanced differential cross section size between 30 and 1 nm is enhanced by 2–7 orders
of the 20 nm particle is much wider than that of the of magnitude. This backscattering enhancement is a
10 nm particle. This could provide a cheap, simple combined effect of the large local fields (i.e., NIPs)
way to sort nanoparticles by their sizes. Further in- and complex composite interactions between the
vestigation has revealed that this backscattering en- closely spaced microcylinder and nanoparticle.
hancement also depends on the refractive index of the
nanoparticle. Therefore it is viable to sort nanopar-
ticles by their refractive indices by analyzing their 4. Scanning of the Positions of Nanoscale Intensity
NIP-enhanced backscattering cross section. Peaks
Figure 4 graphs the backscattering enhancement We further investigate how the positions of the NIPs
factor as a function of the size of the nanoparticle. change along the microcylinder surface if one adjusts
The backscattering enhancement factor (BEF) is de- the incident wavelength or angle. Here we consider
fined as the NIP in Fig. 1. Figure 5(a) illustrates the effect of
perturbing the incident wavelength on the location of
BEF ⫽ ⌬␴兾␴n, (5) a NIP along the cylinder surface in Fig. 1. Here the

Fig. 6. Effects of the perturbing incident wavelength and angle on locations of optical NIPs at the shadow-side surface of a plane-wave-
illuminated elliptical cylinder. The relative location shift of a NIP is plotted. (a) Effects of perturbing incident wavelength on locations of
NIPs. (b) Effects of perturbing incident angle on locations of NIPs.

1 February 2006 兾 Vol. 45, No. 4 兾 APPLIED OPTICS 637

solid curve corresponds to an incident wavelength of actions between the closely spaced microcylinder and
500 nm whereas the dotted curve corresponds to an nanoparticle. In addition, the positions of the local-
incident wavelength of 525 nm. From Fig. 5(a) we see ized intensity peaks can be quickly scanned along the
that the tangential location of the NIP is shifted by microcylinder surface by changing either the incident
65 nm for an incident wavelength perturbation of wavelength or angle. This combination of giant back-
25 nm. scattering enhancement and ease and rapidity of
Figure 5(b) illustrates the effect of perturbing the scanning may present advantages relative to the use
incident angle on the location of a NIP along the of fragile, mechanically scanned, near-field probes.
cylinder surface in Fig. 1. Here the solid curve corre- We believe that the backscattering enhancement
sponds to the incident angle of 0° whereas the dotted phenomenon discussed in this paper provides poten-
curve corresponds to the incident angle of 13°. From tial applications in visible-light ultramicroscopy
Fig. 5(b) we see that the tangential location of the wherein nanoparticles consisting of as few as several
NIP is shifted by 13 nm for an incident angle pertur- hundred atoms could be detected and characterized.
bation of 13°. Other potential applications include manipulation
Figure 6 shows the relative location of a NIP as a and modification of similarly sized nanoparticles.
function of incident wavelength from 500 to 525 nm
[Fig. 6(a)] and as a function of incident angle from 0° This work was supported by National Science
to 20° [Fig. 6(b)]. Here we observe a monotonic vari- Foundation grant BES-0238903.
ation of the NIP location with respect to the wave-
length and incident-angle perturbations. This can References
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5. Conclusion
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638 APPLIED OPTICS 兾 Vol. 45, No. 4 兾 1 February 2006