Dielectric particles can behave as dual metamaterials

Plasmonics is seen as one of the most plausible ways of pushing photonics to the nanoscale. Both Surface Plasmon-Polaritons (SPP) and Localized Surface Plasmons (LSP) have an evanescent nature that enables us to concentrate light in tiny areas and couple it to the nanoscale. However, one major drawback has to still be overcome: metals have huge losses on the visible range. In contrast, dielectric materials do not have losses in the optical regime. This feature makes them very attractive for future nanophotonics designs and as a consequence the study of dielectric particles has gained a lot of interest recently [1].