Revealing Low-Radiative Modes of Nanoresonators with Internal Raman Scattering

Revealing hidden non-radiative (dark) modes of resonant nanostructures using optical methods such as dark-field spectroscopy often becomes a sophisticated problem due to a weak coupling of these modes with a farfield radiation, whereas methods of dark-modes spectroscopy, e.g., cathodoluminescence or elastic energy losses, are not always convenient in use. Here, we suggest an approach for experimental determining the mode structure of a nanoresonator basing on utilizing intrinsic incoherent Raman scattering. We theoretically predict the efficiency of this approach and realize it experimentally for silicon nanoparticle resonators possessing strong Raman line at 520 cm−1. With this method, we studied a silicon nanoparticle placed on a gold substrate and revealed the spectral position of a low-radiative magnetic quadrupole mode which is hardly observable with common dark-field optical spectroscopy.