Nearly total omnidirectional reflection by a single layer of nanorods.

It is shown that a single-layer array of high electric permittivity (high-ε) rods with a radius smaller than λ/10 is capable of reflecting more than 97% of the energy of optical waves with an arbitrary incident angle. Here, λ is the incident wavelength. The occurrence of the phenomenon depends on the construction of two particular grating modes (GMs) in the array which result in two corresponding transmitted wave components that cancel each other. The construction of the dominant GMs in the array benefits from the highly independent manipulability of the angular momenta components with opposite signs in high-ε particles. The effect offers the possibility to improve the optical elements integration level in on-chip optical circuits.