Mesotronic era of dielectric photonics

Some new unusual physical phenomena and effects associated with dielectric mesoscale particles with typical Mie size parameter around 10 were studied and have been discovered during the last decade. There are: optical nanovortices; anapoles; photonic nanojets and terajets as in transmission as in reflection modes; structured fields in the form of photonic hooks and loops with subwavelength curvature; effects of anomalous apodization; high-order Fano resonances; effects associated with the generation of extreme magnetic and acoustic fields; effects of overcoming the diffraction limit; anomalous Gouy phase shift; flat focusing mirrors, and others. This brief review presents the authors’ approach to these problems. The focus of this review is on structural design, numerical simulation, demonstration of new concepts and functionalities, application of the proposed principles in devices. The presence of a number of interesting applications in optics, terahertz, acoustics and plasmonics indicates that in optics, terahertz, acoustics and plasmonics a new promising direction arose, which can be called as “mesotronics”.