Cylindrical invisibility cloak with simplified material parameters is inherently visible

It was proposed that perfect invisibility cloaks can be constructed for hiding objects from electromagnetic illumination [J. B. Pendry, D. Schurig, and D. R. Smith, Science 312, 1780 (2006)10.1126/science.1125907]. The cylindrical cloaks experimentally demonstrated [D. Schurig, Science 314, 977 (2006)10.1126/science.1133628] and theoretically proposed [W. Cai, Nat. Photon. 1, 224 (2007)10.1038/nphoton.2007.28] have however simplified material parameters in order to facilitate easier realization as well as to avoid infinities in optical constants. Here we show that the cylindrical cloaks with simplified material parameters inherently allow the zeroth-order cylindrical wave to pass through the cloak as if the cloak is made of a homogeneous isotropic medium, and thus visible. To all high-order cylindrical waves, our numerical simulation suggests that the simplified cloak inherits some properties of the ideal cloak, but finite scatterings exist.     

Nonsingularity in two-dimensional cylindrical invisible cloaks

The method of designing electromagnetic invisible cloaks is usually based on the form-invariance of Maxwell's equations in coordinate transformation. The exterior boundary of a cylindrical invisible cloak is unchanged and the interior boundary is extended from that of a point to that of a cylindrical region in coordination transformation. This transformation process makes perfect cloaks, but it causes singularity in the constitutive material parameters of cloaks. This singularity makes the cloaks impossible to realize in practice. In order to remove this singularity, this paper sets a small cylindrical region replacing a point in the space transformation. The cylindrical region is so small that it does not affect the invisibility effects, but it can remove the singularity for material parameters. Full wave simulations based on the finite element method were used to verify the designed cloaks.     

Multi-window invisible cloaks

This paper reports that a general method of designing invisible cloaks is using variant constitutive material parameters to realize the space transformation. A hollow region can be hidden after this transformation. It was recently shown (Ma H, Qu S B, Xu Z and Wang J F 2009 \wx{Appl. Phys. Lett.}{94} 103501) that when the original point moves to the boundary of a cloak, the cloak can be designed to be open. Based on this theory, we propose multi-window invisible cloaks which can conceal a group of objects. Full wave simulations for invisible cloaks with regular and irregular shapes verified this method.     

Numerical method of designing three-dimensional open cloaks with arbitrary boundary shapes

In this paper, three-dimensional (3-D) open cloaks were designed based on the coordinate transformation method. When the transformation center point is close to the boundary of the cloaks, the material parameter tensors in the near-boundary areas of the cloaks approximate to those in the background, so the near-boundary areas can be designed to be open. Full wave simulations based on finite element method verified the open cloaks we designed. Open cloaks can exchange information and materials with background media. Using the design method proposed in this paper, the boundary of open cloaks can be arbitrarily shaped, which greatly enhances the applicability of open cloaks.     

Two-Dimensional （2D） Polygonal Electromagnetic Cloaks

Transformation optics offers remarkable control over electromagnetic fields and opens an exciting gateway to design ＇invisible cloak devices＇ recently. We present an important class of two-dimensional （2D） cloaks with polygon geometries. Explicit expressions of transformed medium parameters are derived with their unique properties investigated. It is found that the elements of diagonalized permittivity tensors are always positive within an irregular polygon cloak besides one element diverges to plus infinity and the other two become zero at the inner boundary. At most positions, the principle axes of permittivity tensors do not align with position vectors. An irregular polygon cloak is designed and its invisibility to external electromagnetic waves is numerically verified. Since polygon cloaks can be tailored to resemble any objects, the transformation is finally generalized to the realization of 2D cloaks with arbitrary geometries.     

Design of two-dimensional elliptically cylindrical invisible cloaks with multiple regions

Two-dimensional(2D) elliptically cylindrical invisible cloaks with multiple regions are designed based on the transformation optics and the complementary media theory. Multiple invisible cloak regions can be obtained by properly using the compressed or folded transformation in each space layer. The constitutive parameter tensor expressions for each region have been obtained. The results of full wave simulations by using finite element software confirm the validity of the constitutive parameter tensor expressions. In addition, the parameters are relatively easier to realize.     

An arbitrary-shaped acoustic cloak with merits beyond the internal and external cloaks

Based on transformation acoustics, an arbitrary-shaped acoustic cloak capable of functioning as an information exchange-enabling internal cloak and a movement-allowing external cloak is presented. The general expressions of material parameters for the acoustic cloaks with arbitrarily conformal or non-conformal boundaries are derived, and then the performances of developed cloaks are validated by full-wave simulations. Finally, the different characteristics of the linear and nonlinear transformations-based cloaks are compared and analyzed. The proposed cloak could lead to wider applications beyond that of normal cloaks, since it effectively compensates the insufficiencies of traditional internal and external cloaks. Besides, this work also provides a new method to design bifunctional device and suggests an alternative way to make a large object invisible.     

Acoustic elliptical cylindrical cloaks

By making a comparison between the acoustic equations and the 2-dimensional (2D) Maxwell equations, we obtain the material parameter equations (MPE) for acoustic elliptical cylindrical cloaks. Both the theoretical results and the numerical results indicate that an elliptical cylindrical cloak can realize perfect acoustic invisibility when the spatial distributions of mass density and bulk modulus are exactly configured according to the proposed equations. The present work is the meaningful exploration of designing acoustic cloaks that are neither sphere nor circular cylinder in shape, and opens up possibilities for making complex and multiplex acoustic cloaks with simple models such as spheres, circular or elliptic cylinders.     

三维椭球隐身条件的严格推导及其隐身特性验证

基于坐标变换理论,提出并推导了任意轴比下三维椭球的隐身条件,得到了相应隐身罩材料本构参数张量的通解表达式.根据导出的本构参数张量,利用电磁仿真软件分别对不同轴比的三个典型算例进行仿真验证.仿真结果证实了所导出的本构参数张量的正确性.这些分析结果为隐身物理机理的进一步理解,以及三维隐身罩的设计奠定了更充分的理论基础.     

任意多面体隐身罩材料参数的推导及验证

基于坐标变换理论推导了任意多面体隐身罩的隐身条件,并得到了相应隐身罩材料参数的张量表达式.根据导出的材料参数的张量表达式,通过全波仿真分别对正四面体和十四面体隐身罩进行仿真验证,仿真结果证实了所得材料参数张量表达式的正确性,研究结果为三维复杂形状隐身罩的设计奠定了理论研究基础. 关键词： 坐标变换 多面体隐身罩 张量表达式 全波仿真     

Cloaking an acoustic sensor with single-negative materials

In this review, a brief introduction is given to the development of acoustic superlens cloaks that allow the cloaked object to receive signals while its presence is not sensed by the surrounding, which can be regarded as “cloaking an acoustic sensor”. Remarkably, the designed cloak consists of single-negative materials with parameters independent of the background medium or the sensor system, which is proven to be a magnifying superlens. This has facilitated significantly the design and fabrication of acoustic cloaks that generally require double-negative materials with customized parameters. Such innovative design has then been simplified further as a multi-layered structure comprising of two alternately arranged complementary media with homogeneous isotropic single-negative materials. Based on this, a scattering analyses method is developed for the numerical simulation of such multi-layered cloak structures, which may serve as an efficient approach for the investigation on such devices.     

Bandwidth evaluation of dispersive transformation electromagnetics based devices

In this paper, the transient responses of some devices which are based on transformation electromagnetics are studied, such as invisible cloaks and concentrators, by using the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) numerical technique. In particular, effects of the inherent losses as well as the coating size of the ideal cylindrical cloak on its bandwidth and cloaking performance are examined. In addition, it is demonstrated that the performance of transformation electromagnetics based devices is affected by the material parameters in the design, although they may behave nicely under monochromatic plane wave illuminations. The obtained results are of interest for the future practical implementation of these structures.     

Three dimensional multilayered acoustic cloak with homogeneous isotropic materials

A three-dimensional (3D) spherical acoustic cloak is designed using an acoustic layered system, which can hide an object from the detection of acoustic wave in arbitrary direction. The cloak is constructed from multilayered concentric spherical shells filled with homogeneous isotropic materials. Based on spherical wave expansion method, we confirm that significant low-reflection, acoustic-shadow-reducing, and wavefront-bending effects in 3D space can be achieved by the proposed cloak. The angle distribution of the scattered wave is further evaluated by the far-field scattering pattern. In addition, the cloak is demonstrated to work efficiently in a wide bandwidth in which the cloaking efficiency decreases with increasing frequency. This study may be helpful to design high-performance 3D acoustic cloaks for broadband acoustic waves in all incidence directions.     

Two-dimensional dissimilar electromagnetic cloak for irregular regions

A general method to design a 2D dissimilar cloak for irregular regions is presented by operating a nonlinear transformation in polar coordinates. The material parameters avoid discontinuities while the thickness of the cloak shell is effectively limited in elongated directions. Full-wave simulations of an elliptic cloak, a rectangular cloak, and an arbitrary-shape cloak are performed to verify the validity of the design. Both the material parameters and the scattering widths of different models are calculated and illustrated for comparison. This method provides a possible approach for designing complex shaped cloaks.     

The design of metamaterial cloaks embedded in anisotropic medium

By using coordinate transformation method, this paper obtains an useful equation of designing meta-material cloaks embedded in anisotropic medium. This equation is the generalization of what was introduced early by Pendry et al (2006 \textit{Science} {312 1780) and can be more widely used. As an example of its applications, this paper deduces the material parameter equation for cylinder cloaks embedded in anisotropic medium, and then offers the numerical simulation. The results show that such a cylinder cloak has perfect cloaking performance and therefore verifies the method proposed in this paper.     

Electromagnetic Invisibility of Elliptic Cylinder Cloaks

Structures with unique electromagnetic properties are designed based on the approach of spatial coordinate transformations of Maxwell's equations. Thisapproach is applied to scheme out invisible elliptic cylinder cloaks, which provide more feasibility for cloaking arbitrarily shaped objects. The transformation expressions for the anisotropic material parameters and the field distribution are derived. The cloaking performances of ideal and lossy elliptic cylinder cloaks are investigated by finite element simulations. It is found that the cloaking performance will degrade in the forward direction withincreasing loss.     

正N边形柱的隐身条件的严格推导及其隐身特性验证

基于坐标变换理论,提出并推导了正N边形柱的隐身条件,并得到了相应隐身罩材料本构参数张量的通解表达式. 根据导出的本构参数张量,利用电磁仿真软件分别对N取不同值时的三个典型算例进行仿真验证. 仿真结果证实了所得到的本构参数张量的正确性. 考虑到损耗对于隐身效果的影响分析,这些分析结果为隐身物理机理的进一步理解,以及降低对称度隐身罩的设计奠定了理论基础. 关键词： 坐标变换 非均匀各向异性介质 本构参数张量 隐身     

Cloaks,editors, and bubbles: applications of spacetime transformation theory

Spacetime or ‘event’ cloaking was recently introduced as a concept, and the theoretical design for such a cloak was presented for illumination by electromagnetic waves [McCall et al., J. Opt. 2011]. Here it is described how event cloaks can be designed for simple wave systems, using either an approximate ‘speed cloak’ method, or an exact full‐wave one. Further, details of many of the implications of spacetime transformation devices are discussed, including their (usually) directional nature, spacetime distortions (as opposed to cloaks), and how leaky cloaks manifest themselves. More exotic concepts are also addressed, in particular concepts that follow naturally on from considerations of simple spacetime transformation devices, such as spacetime modeling and causality editors. A proposal for implementing an interrupt‐without‐interrupt concept is described. Finally, the design for a time‐dependent ‘bubbleverse’ is presented, based on temporally modulated Maxwell's Fisheye transformation device (T‐device) in a flat background spacetime.     

Material parameter equation for rotating elliptical spherical cloaks

By using the coordinate transformation method, we have deduced the material parameter equation for rotating elliptical spherical cloaks and carried out simulation as well. The results indicate that the rotating elliptical spherical cloaking shell, which is made of meta-materials whose permittivity and permeability are governed by the equation deduced in this paper, can achieve perfect invisibility by excluding electromagnetic fields from the internal region without disturbing any external field.     

Design method of reusable reciprocal invisibility and phantom device

Reusable reciprocal invisibility and phantom device is proposed and designed based on multi-folded transformation optics and equivalent components. In comparison with the reported reciprocal invisibility cloaks, the material parameters of the device presented here are homogeneous, and the hiding of the target object does not require any "anti-object" at all, which dramatically breaks through the limitations of the "anti-object" design in previous reciprocal cloak design. Perfectly illusion effect is also found by reasonably setting the material parameters of the restored medium of the device, which can be used to confuse detection radars while hiding target objects. Last but not least, the proposed device has an open structure, which enables the target object enclosed by the device to perform material exchange and simplex transfer of information with the outside world through open channels. In other words, the proposed device has a reusable function, enabling stealth or phantom of new target objects without changing any parameters of the device.