Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 28, 2026

Demonstration of Equal-Intensity Beam Generation by Dielectric Metasurfaces
Published on: June 7, 2019
Enhanced absorption in all-dielectric metasurfaces due to magnetic dipole excitation
Pavel D Terekhov1,2,3,4, Kseniia V Baryshnikova4, Yakov Greenberg1,2,3
1Photonics and Electrooptical Engineering Unit, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, 8410501, Israel.
Abstract:
All-dielectric nanophotonics lies at a forefront of nanoscience and technology as it allows to control light at the nanoscale using its electric and magnetic components. Bulk silicon does not experience any magnetic response, nevertheless, we demonstrate that the metasurface made of silicon parallelepipeds allows to excite the magnetic dipole moment leading to the broadening and enhancement of the absorption. Our investigations are underpinned by the numerical predictions and the experimental verifications. Also surprisingly we found that the resonant electric quadrupole moment leads to the enhancement of reflection. Our results can be applied for a development of absorption based devices from miniature dielectric absorbers, filters to solar cells and energy harvesting devices.
Related Concept Videos
Electric Dipoles and Dipole Moment
Theoretically, studying electric dipoles leads to understanding why the resultant electric forces around us are weak. Since electric forces are strong, remnant net charges are rare. Hence, the interaction between dipoles helps us understand electrical interactions in...
Bond Polarity, Dipole Moment, and Percent Ionic Character
Capacitor With A Dielectric
Dielectrics are non-conducting materials with no free or loosely bound electrons. When a dielectric is...
Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human...
Induced Electric Dipoles
Since the absolute value of potential energy holds no physical meaning, its zero value can be chosen as per...
Gauss's Law in Dielectrics

