purpose of better illustration NWs of $L=2\,$m length are shown. We point out that all NWs have excellent surface properties, low roughness and steep flanks.

The results of our systematic FW/BW scattering measurements are shown in figure \[fig:fig4\]. Spectra for TE polarized illumination are shown in (a-b), TM spectra in (c-d). The comparison of experiments ( (a) and (c) ) with GDM simulations ( (b) and (d) ) show a very good qualitative and quantitative agreement. Having a look at the FW/BW ratios (Fig. \[fig:fig4\], bottom row) we observe that uni-directional scattering occurs mostly towards the FW direction. Spectrally relatively narrow peaks of strong forward scattering can be identified for both, TE and TM polarized illumination. On the other hand, a zone of significant BW scattering is observed only in the case of TE polarization, similar to our observations on cylindrical SiNWs.

Selected spectra from Fig. \[fig:fig4\], as well as several near-field intensity plots are shown in figure \[fig:fig5\]. The spectra in (a-d) confirm the very good agreement between experiment (solid lines) and simulations (dashed lines). For the smallest nanowire widths as well as for long wavelengths, we find again an omnidirectional scattering, corresponding to a purely dipolar response (Fig. 