Figure 4: Comparison of the transmission, scattering and absorption of a ring-disk dimer.

(a) A plot of transmission, forward scattering with the estimated backward scattering and absorption of the ring-disk dimer. (b) Simulation of the ring-disk dimer using Comsol: scattering, absorption and extinction. The absorption of the disk only and the ring only are also shown to illustrate that peaks in absorption indeed arise from the near-field excitation of the ring modes. (c) Comparison of the ring-disk dimer’s transmission with the ratio of absorption to total loss (that is, absorption, forward and backward scattering). This shows correspondence of the transmission peaks with the maximal proportions of absorption, supporting the observation of Fano interference. The shade areas represent the uncertainty due to the fluctuation of the beam paths (Supplementary Fig. 4).