Reciprocity Violation for Mie Scatterers at the Interface and a Scattering Solar Concentrator

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that reciprocity can be broken in Mie scatterers at interfaces, enabling high rectification ratios for optical diodes, with potential applications in efficient solar light harvesting devices.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism for reciprocity violation using asymmetric near-field coupling in Mie scatterers, leading to high rectification ratios in optical diodes.

Findings

Achieved at least two orders of magnitude rectification ratio.

Numerical simulations confirm feasibility for silicon nanospheres.

Potential for high-efficiency solar concentrators similar to luminescence-based devices.

Abstract

It is shown that reciprocity of the optical path can be violated through asymmetric strength coupling via near-field from resonant Mie scatterers to total internal reflection modes in a dielectric slab. Numerical simulations for silicon nanospheres separated by a nanogap from the glass substrate reveal that at least two orders of magnitude rectification ratio can be realized for such an optical diode configuration. Implementation to a solar light harvesting device, a scattering solar concentrator, is discussed, indicating a similar efficiency is achievable as for the state-of-the-art devices based on luminescence.