A recently published theory has suggested that a cloak of invisibility is in principle possible, at least over a narrow frequency band. We describe here the first practical realization of such a cloak; in our demonstration, a copper cylinder was "hidden" inside a cloak constructed according to the previous theoretical prescription. The cloak was constructed with the use of artificially structured metamaterials, designed for operation over a band of microwave frequencies. The cloak decreased scattering from the hidden object while at the same time reducing its shadow, so that the cloak and object combined began to resemble empty space.

/pdf/metamaterial-electromagnetic-cloak-at-microwave-frequencies-1qj4zdgl8e.pdf

Metamaterial Electromagnetic Cloak at Microwave Frequencies

Recently, artificially constructed metamaterials have become of considerable interest, because these materials can exhibit electromagnetic characteristics unlike those of any conventional materials. Artificial magnetism and negative refractive index are two specific types of behavior that have been demonstrated over the past few years, illustrating the new physics and new applications possible when we expand our view as to what constitutes a material. In this review, we describe recent advances in metamaterials research and discuss the potential that these materials may hold for realizing new and seemingly exotic electromagnetic phenomena.

/pdf/metamaterials-and-negative-refractive-index-5ehczes1hu.pdf

Metamaterials and negative refractive index.

Metamaterials are typically engineered by arranging a set of small scatterers or apertures in a regular array throughout a region of space, thus obtaining some desirable bulk electromagnetic behavior. The desired property is often one that is not normally found naturally (negative refractive index, near-zero index, etc.). Over the past ten years, metamaterials have moved from being simply a theoretical concept to a field with developed and marketed applications. Three-dimensional metamaterials can be extended by arranging electrically small scatterers or holes into a two-dimensional pattern at a surface or interface. This surface version of a metamaterial has been given the name metasurface (the term metafilm has also been employed for certain structures). For many applications, metasurfaces can be used in place of metamaterials. Metasurfaces have the advantage of taking up less physical space than do full three-dimensional metamaterial structures; consequently, metasurfaces offer the possibility of less-lossy structures. In this overview paper, we discuss the theoretical basis by which metasurfaces should be characterized, and discuss their various applications. We will see how metasurfaces are distinguished from conventional frequency-selective surfaces. Metasurfaces have a wide range of potential applications in electromagnetics (ranging from low microwave to optical frequencies), including: (1) controllable “smart” surfaces, (2) miniaturized cavity resonators, (3) novel wave-guiding structures, (4) angular-independent surfaces, (5) absorbers, (6) biomedical devices, (7) terahertz switches, and (8) fluid-tunable frequency-agile materials, to name only a few. In this review, we will see that the development in recent years of such materials and/or surfaces is bringing us closer to realizing the exciting speculations made over one hundred years ago by the work of Lamb, Schuster, and Pocklington, and later by Mandel'shtam and Veselago.

An Overview of the Theory and Applications of Metasurfaces: The Two-Dimensional Equivalents of Metamaterials

A new type of cloak is discussed: one that gives all cloaked objects the appearance of a flat conducting sheet. It has the advantage that none of the parameters of the cloak is singular and can in fact be made isotropic. It makes broadband cloaking in the optical frequencies one step closer.

Hiding under the Carpet: A New Strategy for Cloaking

The possibility of cloaking an object from detection by electromagnetic waves has recently become a topic of considerable interest. The design of a cloak uses transformation optics, in which a conformal coordinate transformation is applied to Maxwell's equations to obtain a spatially distributed set of constitutive parameters that define the cloak. Here, we present an experimental realization of a cloak design that conceals a perturbation on a flat conducting plane, under which an object can be hidden. To match the complex spatial distribution of the required constitutive parameters, we constructed a metamaterial consisting of thousands of elements, the geometry of each element determined by an automated design process. The ground-plane cloak can be realized with the use of nonresonant metamaterial elements, resulting in a structure having a broad operational bandwidth (covering the range of 13 to 16 gigahertz in our experiment) and exhibiting extremely low loss. Our experimental results indicate that this type of cloak should scale well toward optical wavelengths.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/323/5912/366.full.pdf

Broadband Ground-Plane Cloak

We propose an improved method to retrieve the effective constitutive parameters (permittivity and permeability) of a slab of metamaterial from the measurement of S parameters. Improvements over existing methods include the determination of the first boundary and the thickness of the effective slab, the selection of the correct sign of effective impedance, and a mathematical method to choose the correct branch of the real part of the refractive index. The sensitivity of the effective constitutive parameters to the accuracy of the S parameters is also discussed. The method has been applied to various metamaterials and the successful retrieval results prove its effectiveness and robustness.

https://people.engr.ncsu.edu/dschuri/ECE782_Fall_2009/Topics_files/e016608.pdf

Robust method to retrieve the constitutive effective parameters of metamaterials.

We establish analytically the interactions of electromagnetic wave with a general class of spherical cloaks based on a full wave Mie scattering model. We show that for an ideal cloak the total scattering cross section is absolutely zero, but for a cloak with a specific type of loss, only the backscattering is exactly zero, which indicates the cloak can still be rendered invisible with a monostatic (transmitter and receiver in the same location) detection. Furthermore, we show that for a cloak with imperfect parameters the bistatic (transmitter and receiver in different locations) scattering performance is more sensitive to eta(t)=square root micro(t)/epsilon(t) than n(t)=square root micro(t)epsilon(t).

/pdf/electromagnetic-wave-interactions-with-a-metamaterial-cloak-2uegjoo4zz.pdf

Electromagnetic Wave Interactions with a Metamaterial Cloak

Using a commercial software, simulations are done on the radiation of a dipole antenna embedded in metamaterial substrates. Metamaterials under consideration are composed of a periodic collection of rods, or of both rods and rings. The S-parameters of these metamaterials in a waveguide are analyzed and compared with their equivalent plasma or resonant structure. Farfield radiation is optimized by analytic method and is simulated numerically. The metamaterial is shown to improve the directivity.

/pdf/a-study-of-using-metamaterials-as-antenna-substrate-to-4toxrms6wz.pdf

A Study of Using Metamaterials as Antenna Substrate to Enhance Gain

We propose a method to retrieve the effective constitutive parameters of a slab of bianisotropic metamaterial composed of split-ring resonators from the measurement of the $S$ parameters. Analytical inversion equations are derived for homogeneous lossless bianisotropic media, and a numerical retrieval approach is presented for the case of lossy bianisotropic media. The method is verified both analytically and numerically, and it is shown that the results for various split-ring resonator metamaterials qualitatively corroborate the conclusions found in published papers. The proposed retrieval method can be used as a valuable tool for the study of anisotropic and bianisotropic properties of metamaterials.

Retrieval of the effective constitutive parameters of bianisotropic metamaterials.

By using a phased electromagnetic dipole array to model a moving charged particle, we experimentally verified a reversed Cherenkov radiation in the left-handed media in the frequency range from 8.1 to 9.5 GHz. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of new types of particle detectors and radiation generators.

Bae-Ian Wu

Papers

Robust method to retrieve the constitutive effective parameters of metamaterials.

Electromagnetic Wave Interactions with a Metamaterial Cloak

A Study of Using Metamaterials as Antenna Substrate to Enhance Gain

Retrieval of the effective constitutive parameters of bianisotropic metamaterials.

Experimental verification of reversed Cherenkov radiation in left-handed metamaterial.