Toroidal Dipolar Excitation in Metamaterials Consisting of Metal nanodisks and a Dielectrc Spacer on Metal Substrate

Abstract We have investigated numerically toroidal dipolar excitation at optical frequency in metamaterials whose unit cell consists of three identical Ag nanodisks and a SiO2 spacer on Ag substrate. The near-field plasmon hybridization between individual Ag nanodisks and substrate forms three magnetic dipolar resonances, at normal incidence of plane electromagnetic waves. The strong coupling among three magnetic dipolar resonances leads to the toroidal dipolar excitation, when space-inversion symmetry is broke along the polarization direction of incident light. The influences of some geometrical parameters on the resonance frequency and the excitation strength of toroidal dipolar mode are studied in detail. The radiated power from toroidal dipole is also compared with that from conventional electric and magnetic multipoles.