Superbackscattering from single dielectric particles

We demonstrate that superbackscattering responses can be excited in subwavelength dielectric particles with simple geometries. The superbackscattering response arises from the simultaneous, coherent excitation of electric dipole and magnetic quadrupole resonances. Its signature is a superdirective scattering pattern simultaneously pointing towards both the forward and backward directions. The practical implementation of this effect with Tellurium particles operating in the thermal infrared is also addressed. The examples presented reveal that spherical resonators outperform array-based superbackscatterers in terms of the backscattering peak, compact size, robustness against losses and isotropic response.