Dyadic Green's function for a topological insulator stratified sphere

We construct the dyadic Green's functions (DGFs) for a topological insulator (TI) stratified sphere within the framework of axion electrodynamics. For these DGFs, the additional expansion coefficients are included to account for the axion coupling effect. With the application of these DGFs, we derive the formulation of light scattering from a dipole near a TI stratified sphere. In our numerical studies, we give three types of configurations (a metal-coated TI sphere, a metal-TI-metal-coated TI sphere and an alternating metal-TI stratified sphere) to investigate how the topological magneto-electric (TME) response of the TI sphere (shells) influences on the multipolar plasmonic resonance of the metal shells. For these types, the results show that the TME effect causes some modifications of the decay rate spectrum for an emitting dipole near a TI stratified sphere. For the multipolar resonances of the metal shells, it is observed that the TME-induced red-shifts for the bonding and lower order antibonding modes are found but those for the higher order antibonding modes are insignificant. In addition, for a metal-coated TI sphere, we take into account the effects of losses in the TI core of which the dielectric function is chosen to be the form of the bulk or five quintuple layers (5QL) slab and then the some modifications of the TME-induced decay rate spectrum are obviously suppressed. These phenomenological characteristics provide useful guidance to probing the TME effect via molecular fluorescence experiments.

Automated summary

This paper constructs the dyadic Green's functions (DGFs) for a stratified sphere made of a topological insulator (TI) based on axion electrodynamics, considering the axion coupling effect. The formulation of light scattering from a dipole near the TI stratified sphere is derived using these DGFs. Numerical studies are conducted on different configurations to investigate the influence of the topological magneto-electric (TME) response of the TI sphere on the multipolar plasmonic resonance of the metal shells. The results show that the TME effect causes modifications of the decay rate spectrum for the emitting dipole near the TI stratified sphere.