, nanowires have a strongly polarization dependent optical response, which offers an additional degree of freedom, supplementary to the choice of material and modifications of the structure’s geometry. Despite this opportunity, research on directional scattering from dielectric nanowires is still scarce. multi-layer dielectric [@mirzaei_all-dielectric_2015] or plasmonic-dielectric core-shell [@liu_invisible_2015] nanowires can be rendered invisible by tailoring destructive interference between modes. Such entities might be useful for cloaking applications, for instance to create “invisible” electric contacts or circuits. [@fan_invisible_2012]

Using Mie theory we analyze in a first step the interplay of different modes, leading to the occurrence of directional scattering. We then compare experimental results from silicon nanowires (SiNWs) of cylindrical and rectangular cross-sections. In both cases spectral zones of strongly anisotropic FW/BW scattering ratios can be identified and we find that asymmetric wire geometries allow even further tailoring of directional scattering . We confront our experimental results with simulations using the Green dyadic method (GDM), yielding a very good agreement.

Directional scattering from cylindrical nanowires
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Mie theory can be applied to infinitely long cylinders by expanding the fields in vector cylindrical harmonics. The Mie scattering coefficients $a_i$ and $b_i$ of the expansion can be regarded as weights for corresponding electric 