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We have modeled, fabricated, and characterized a plasmonic metasurface with subwavelength features, whose dominant resonance is the independent of incident angle and polarization, and sensitive only to the material composition and geometry of a single element. Higher-order resonances, associated with surface plasmon polariton (SPP) coupling and higher diffraction orders, are sensitive to the incident angle and the array periodicity and less pronounced compared with the metasurface resonance. Numerical simulations and theoretical analysis highlight a clear physical difference between the SPP resonances and the dominant metasurface collective resonance, whose properties may be of great interest for plasmonic solar cells and subwavelength color filters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of symmetry between electric and magnetic charges, a fundamental consequence of the small value of the fine-structure constant, is directly related to the weakness of magnetic effects in optical materials. Properly tailored plasmonic nanoclusters have been proposed recently to induce artificial optical magnetism based on the principle that magnetic effects are indistinguishable from specific forms of spatial dispersion of permittivity at optical frequencies. In a different context, plasmonic Fano resonances have generated a great deal of interest, particularly for use in sensing applications that benefit from sharp spectral features and extreme field localization. In the absence of natural magnetism, optical Fano resonances have so far been based on purely electric effects. In this Letter, we demonstrate that a subwavelength plasmonic metamolecule consisting of four closely spaced gold nanoparticles supports a strong magnetic response coupled to a broad electric resonance. Small structural asymmetries in the assembled nanoring enable the interaction between electric and magnetic modes, leading to the first observation of a magnetic-based Fano scattering resonance at optical frequencies. Our findings are supported by excellent agreement with simulations and analytical calculations, and represent an important step towards the quest for artificial magnetism and negative refractive index metamaterials at optical frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]