On the sensitivity of the 2D electromagnetic invisibility cloak

A computational study of the sensitivity of the two dimensional (2D) electromagnetic invisibility cloaks is performed with the finite element method. A circular metallic object is covered with the cloak and the effects of absorption, gain and disorder are examined. Also the effect of covering the cloak with a thin dielectric layer is studied.     

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.     

Invisibility of a metamaterial cloak illuminated by spherical electromagnetic wave

In this paper, the invisibility of a metamaterial cloak illuminated by spherical electromagnetic wave is analytically investigated based on the full wave Mie scattering model. It is shown that for a cloak with ideal parameters the scattered field intensity is zero, but for a cloak with a loss, only the backscattering is exactly zero. Moreover, in the loss case, the scattered field intensity increases as the loss increases, which is very different from that in the conventional stealth case, where the scattered field intensity decreases as the loss of coated material increases. In addition, it is shown that scattering cross-section of the cloak with perturbed parameters decreases as the thickness of the cloak decreases, which means that thinner cloak can exhibit more stable invisibility.     

新型椭圆形互补隐身斗篷设计

基于变换光学理论和互补媒质理论,提出了新型椭圆形互补隐身斗篷的设计方法,并得到了本构参数张量表达式,利用基于有限元算法的电磁仿真软件对该模型进行了全波仿真验证,结果证实了所得到的表达式的正确性,这种隐身斗篷不仅能够实现对位于其内部的物体隐身,而且电磁波能透进隐身斗篷内部进而可以与外界进行通信。     

Acoustic carpet invisibility cloak with two open windows using multilayered homogeneous isotropic material

We present a method for designing an open acoustic cloak that can conceal a perturbation on flat ground and simultaneously meet the requirement of communication and matter interchange between the inside and the outside of the cloak. This cloak can be constructed with a multilayered structure and each layer is an isotropic and homogeneous medium. The design scheme consists of two steps: firstly, we apply a conformal coordinate transformation to obtain a quasi-perfect cloak with heterogeneous isotropic material; then, according to the profile of the material distribution, we degenerate this cloak into a multilayered-homogeneous isotropic cloak, which has two open windows with negligible disturbance on its invisibility performance. This may greatly facilitate the fabrication and enhance the applicability of such a carpet-type cloak.     

Improving the performance of acoustic invisibility with multilayer structure based on scattering analysis

In this paper, acoustic scattering from the system comprised of a cloaked object and the multilayer cloak with only one single pair of isotropic media is analyzed with a recursive numerical method. The designed acoustic parameters of the isotropic cloak media are assumed to be single-negative, and the resulting cloak can reduce acoustic scattering from an acoustic sensor while allowing it to receive external information. Several factors that may influence the performance of the cloak, including the number of layers and the acoustic dissipation of the medium are fully analyzed. Furthermore, the possibility of achieving acoustic invisibility with positive acoustic parameters is proposed by searching the optimum value in the parameter space and minimizing the scattering cross-section.     

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.     

Extraordinary surface voltage effect in the invisibility cloak with an active device inside

The electromagnetic field solution for a spherical invisibility cloak with an active device inside is established. Extraordinary electric and magnetic surface voltages are induced at the inner boundary of a spherical cloak, which prevent electromagnetic waves from going out. The phase and handness of polarized waves obliquely incident on such boundaries are kept in the reflected waves. The surface voltages due to an electric dipole inside the concealed region are found equal to the auxiliary scalar potentials at the inner boundary, which consequently gain physical counterparts in this case.     

Simplified triangular ground plane cloak by oblique multilayer dielectrics

Based on the effective medium theory, the triangular ground plane cloak can be realized by thin layered systems. Two solutions of parameter setting of the layered cloak are suggested to demonstrate the invisibility performance of a hybrid incoming wave. The hybrid parameters are derived from the equivalent of both anisotropies of permittivity and permeability to the alternating layers. The performance of the designed layered cloak is validated by both TM and TE wave simulations with near-field distributions and average scattering power outflows on an observation semicircle. From the simulation results, the layered cloak with both hybrid parameters and improved hybrid parameters can reflect the incoming TM/TE waves in a specular direction, and the latter behaves with a better overall invisibility performance.     

Ideal cylindrical cloak: perfect but sensitive to tiny perturbations

A cylindrical wave expansion method is developed to obtain the scattering field for an ideal two-dimensional cylindrical invisibility cloak. A near-ideal model of the invisibility cloak is set up to solve the boundary problem at the inner boundary of the cloak shell. We confirm that a cloak with the ideal material parameters is a perfect invisibility cloak by systematically studying the change of the scattering coefficients from the near-ideal case to the ideal one. However, because of the slow convergence of the zeroth-order scattering coefficients, a tiny perturbation on the cloak would induce a noticeable field scattering and penetration.     

Physical bounds on electromagnetic invisibility and the potential of superconducting cloaks

The possibility of suppressing the scattering cross section of an object is subject to fundamental physical bounds imposed by causality and passivity. Global cloaking limitations have been recently derived, which imply that any linear, causal and passive cloak necessarily increases the global scattering, integrated over the whole electromagnetic spectrum, compared to the uncloaked object. Here, we expand on this topic, discussing in detail an interesting exception to this limit represented by cloaks with static diamagnetism. In this context, we explore the potential of superconducting materials to realize global and local reduction of the scattering cross section. The concepts of plasmonic and mantle cloaking are extended to superconductors, realizing strong and tunable invisibility, with some unique properties stemming from the peculiar electrodynamics of superconductors. We conclude by qualitatively discussing a possible method to derive more stringent local bounds on cloaking.     

Broadband cloaking in stratified seas

Here we show that floating objects in stratified fluids can be cloaked against broadband incident waves by properly architecting the bottom corrugations. The presented invisibility cloaking of gravity waves is achieved utilizing a nonlinear resonance concept that occurs between surface and internal waves mediated by the bottom topography. Our cloak bends wave rays from the surface into the body of the fluid. Wave rays then pass underneath the floating object and may be recovered back to the free surface at the downstream bearing no trace of diffraction or scattering. The cloak is the proper architecture of bottom corrugations only, and hence is surface noninvasive. The presented scheme is a nonlinear alternative to the transformation-based cloaking, but in the context of dispersive waves.     

Broadband acoustic cloak for ultrasound waves

Invisibility devices based on coordinate transformation have opened up a new field of considerable interest. We present here the first practical realization of a low-loss and broadband acoustic cloak for underwater ultrasound. This metamaterial cloak is constructed with a network of acoustic circuit elements, namely, serial inductors and shunt capacitors. Our experiment clearly shows that the acoustic cloak can effectively bend the ultrasound waves around the hidden object, with reduced scattering and shadow. Because of the nonresonant nature of the building elements, this low-loss (～6 dB/m) cylindrical cloak exhibits invisibility over a broad frequency range from 52 to 64?kHz. Furthermore, our experimental study indicates that this design approach should be scalable to different acoustic frequencies and offers the possibility for a variety of devices based on coordinate transformation.     

Carpet Cloak Design for Rough Surfaces

Conventional carpet cloak structures have been utilized to conceal the objects located on a planar perfect electric conductor surface. We systematically investigate hiding arbitrarily shaped objects on a rough surface, as a more general and practical scenario. In addition, the required cloak is designed considering different boundary conditions for the surface beneath the object, despite the previous studies. To achieve an invisibility cloak, taking advantage of linear coordinate transformation, a simple homogeneous material is obtained to realize the cloak structure, facilitating the fabrication processes. Numerical simulations validate the performance of the proposed cloaking method. Therefore, the proposed structure is capable of cloaking in more general and complicated scenarios.     

Remote acoustic cloaks

Due to the correspondence of the acoustic equations to Maxwell??s equations of one polarization in two dimensions, we exploit theoretically the acoustic counterpart of the recently proposed remote invisibility cloak. The cloak consists of a circular cylindrical core with designed bulk moduli, and an ??anti-object?? embedded inside a shell with anisotropic mass densities. The material parameters of the cloaking shells are obtained by using the coordinate transformation method. The essence of the new design of cloaks relies on the ability that the cloaked object is no longer deafened by the cloaking shell, which is verified by both the far-field and near-field full-wave finite-element simulations in two dimensions.     

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.     

Electromagnetic analysis of cylindrical cloaks of an arbitrary cross section

We extend the design of radially symmetric invisibility cloaks through transformation optics as proposed by Pendry et al. [Science 312, 1780 (2006)] to coated cylinders of an arbitrary cross section. The validity of our Fourier-based approach is confirmed by both analytical and numerical results for a cloak displaying a non-convex cross section of varying thickness. In the former case, we evaluate the Green's function of a line source in the transformed coordinates. In the latter case, we implement a full-wave finite-element model for a cylindrical antenna radiating a p-polarized electric field in the presence of a F-shaped lossy object surrounded by the cloak.     

Macroscopic invisibility cloak for visible light

Invisibility cloaks, a subject that usually occurs in science fiction and myths, have attracted wide interest recently because of their possible realization. The biggest challenge to true invisibility is known to be the cloaking of a macroscopic object in the broad range of wavelengths visible to the human eye. Here we experimentally solve this problem by incorporating the principle of transformation optics into a conventional optical lens fabrication with low-cost materials and simple manufacturing techniques. A transparent cloak made of two pieces of calcite is created. This cloak is able to conceal a macroscopic object with a maximum height of 2 mm, larger than 3500 free-space-wavelength, inside a transparent liquid environment. Its working bandwidth encompassing red, green, and blue light is also demonstrated.     

Loss of Invisibility in Metamaterials under Thermal Fluctuation Induced Radiation

Metamaterials have been extensively investigated for the development of invisibility cloaks; however, the role of nonequilibrium thermal fluctuations in the operation of metamaterial‐based cloaking remains an unexplored avenue. Here, an analytical study on nonequilibrium thermal fluctuations induced charges and currents in metamaterials which generate electromagnetic modes is presented. It is argued that thermally induced charges in metamaterials cannot remain shielded from incoming electromagnetic radiation and excitation of such charges, by incoming electromagnetic waves, can enhance specific modes, whose radiation limits the invisibility effects associated with metamaterial‐based cloaking. The analysis leads to the conclusion that thermodynamic equilibrium is an essential condition of the invisibility of metamaterial‐based cloaking.     

Quasi-invisible thermal cloak based on homogenous materials

Invisible thermal cloak, which cancels distortions of temperature distribution caused by objects, has many potential applications in thermal engineering. In this letter, we theoretically proposed and simulatively verified a new design method for quasi-invisible thermal cloak. Different from conventional transformation thermodynamics that focus on complete invisibility, our method only decreases the effective scale of objects to small enough and realizes a quasi-invisible cloaking effect in thermal conduction regime. However, this quasi-invisible cloak has the same effect as that of invisible thermal cloak in practical engineering. More important, our cloak is easy to construct by natural materials due to its homogenous thermal properties and can cloak objects with different shapes and properties. These characters make the clock more comfortable for engineering applications.