Huygens' Dipole For Polarization-Controlled Nanoscale Light Routing

Structured illumination allows for satisfying the first Kerker condition of in-phase perpendicular electric and magnetic dipole moments in any isotropic scatterer that supports electric and magnetic dipole resonances. The induced Huygens' dipole may be utilized for unidirectional coupling to waveguide modes that propagate transverse to the excitation beam. We study two configurations of a Huygens' dipole, longitudinal electric and transverse magnetic dipole moments or vice versa. We experimentally show that only the radially polarized emission of the first and azimuthally polarized emission of the second configuration are directional in the far field. This polarization selectivity implies that directional excitation of either transverse magnetic (TM) or transverse electric (TE) waveguide modes is possible. Applying this concept to a single dielectric nanoantenna excited with structured light, we are able to experimentally achieve scattering directivities of around 23 and 18 dB in TM and TE modes, respectively. This strong directivity paves the way for tunable polarization-controlled nanoscale light routing and applications in optical metrology, localization microscopy, and on-chip optical devices.