Adding a spin to Kerker’s condition: angular tuning of directional scattering with designed excitation

We describe a method to control the directional scattering of a high-index dielectric nanosphere, which utilizes the unique focusing properties of an azimuthally polarized phase vortex and a radially polarized beam to independently excite inside the nanosphere a spinning magnetic dipole and a linearly polarized electric dipole mode normal to the magnetic dipole. We show that by simply adjusting the phase and amplitude of the field on the exit pupil of the optical system, the scattering of the nanosphere can be tuned to any direction within a plane, and the method works over a broad wavelength range.