Complete light annihilation in an ultrathin layer of gold nanoparticles

We experimentally demonstrate that an incident light beam can be completely annihilated in a single layer of randomly distributed, widely spaced gold nanoparticle antennas. Under certain conditions, each antenna dissipates more than 10 times the number of photons that enter its geometric cross-sectional area. The underlying physics can be understood in terms of a critical coupling to localized plasmons in the nanoparticles or, equivalently, in terms of destructive optical Fano interference and so-called coherent absorption.