Superbackscattering nanoparticle architectures

Any spectroscopy, communication, remote sensing, manipulation and/or imaging system composed of an individual emitter/receiver device is ultimately based on a backscattering measurement. Therefore, nanoantennas and nanoparticle architectures with exceptionally large backscattering cross-sections are of general interest for a wide range of technological applications. Naturally, superbackscattering nanoantennas must be understood as scatterers/obstacles in regards to electromagnetic fields and, therefore, their design must inevitably differ from the design of conventional antenna/radiators. In essence, nanoantennas must not only re-radiate (scatter) the incident field along a desired direction, but they must also extract the energy from it via destructive interference. The intrinsically different physics of this process is inevitably associated with a new set of design strategies and fundamental limitations yet to be discovered.