Distance limit of the directionality conditions for the scattering of nanoparticles

Abstract

M. Kerker et al. [J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73 (1983) 765–767] established that under certain optical conditions and in the far-field regime, one isolated dipole-like particle may not scatter light in the forward or in the backward direction. New applications within the nanoscience community require knowledge of the scattering behaviour in the neighbourhood of structures in the near-field region. In this work we analyse the conditions derived by Kerker et al., as a function of the distance to the particle, from the near field to the far-field zone to discover the regions of applicability.