Angle-Suppressed Scattering and Optical Forces on Submicron Dielectric Particles

We show that submicron Silicon spheres, whose polarizabilities are completely given by their two ?rst Mie coe?cients, are an excellent laboratory to test e?ects of both angle-suppressed and resonant di?erential scattering cross sections. Speci?cally, outstanding scattering angular distributions, with zero forward or backward scattered intensity, (i.e., the so-called Kerker's conditions), previously discussed for hypothetical magnetodielectric particles, are now observed for those Si objects in the near infrared. Interesting new consequences for the corresponding optical forces are derived from the interplay, both in and out resonance, between the electric and magnetic induced dipoles.