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

Electromagnetic Metamaterials: Transmission Line Theory and Microwave Applications. By Christophe Caloz and Tatsuo Itoh.

Controlling the electromagnetic properties of materials, going beyond the limit that is attainable with naturally existing substances, has become a reality with the advent of metamaterials. The range of various structured artificial 'atoms' has promised a vast variety of otherwise unexpected physical phenomena, among which the experimental realization of a negative refractive index has been one of the main foci thus far. Expanding the refractive index into a high positive regime will complete the spectrum of achievable refractive index and provide more design flexibility for transformation optics. Naturally existing transparent materials possess small positive indices of refraction, except for a few semiconductors and insulators, such as lead sulphide or strontium titanate, that exhibit a rather high peak refractive index at mid- and far-infrared frequencies. Previous approaches using metamaterials were not successful in realizing broadband high refractive indices. A broadband high-refractive-index metamaterial structure was theoretically investigated only recently, but the proposed structure does not lend itself to easy implementation. Here we demonstrate that a broadband, extremely high index of refraction can be realized from large-area, free-standing, flexible terahertz metamaterials composed of strongly coupled unit cells. By drastically increasing the effective permittivity through strong capacitive coupling and decreasing the diamagnetic response with a thin metallic structure in the unit cell, a peak refractive index of 38.6 along with a low-frequency quasi-static value of over 20 were experimentally realized for a single-layer terahertz metamaterial, while maintaining low losses. As a natural extension of these single-layer metamaterials, we fabricated quasi-three-dimensional high-refractive-index metamaterials, and obtained a maximum bulk refractive index of 33.2 along with a value of around 8 at the quasi-static limit.

/pdf/a-terahertz-metamaterial-with-unnaturally-high-refractive-46ndrf98k5.pdf

A terahertz metamaterial with unnaturally high refractive index

We propose ultrathin multiband metamaterial absorbers in the microwave frequencies in which the design, analysis, fabrication, and measurement of the absorbers working in multiple bands are presented. The metamaterial absorbers consist of a periodic arrangement of different scales of electric-field-coupled-LC (ELC) resonators and a metallic background plane, separated by only 1 mm dielectric spacer. By tuning the scale factor of the ELC unit cells, we achieve independently multiple absorptions at different customized frequencies. Experiments demonstrate excellent absorption rates in the designed frequency bands over wide angles of incident waves for both transverse electric and magnetic polarizations. The explanation to the physical mechanism of the multiband metamaterial absorber is presented and verified.

Ultrathin multiband gigahertz metamaterial absorbers

Metamaterials based on effective media can be used to produce a number of unusual physical properties (for example, negative refraction and invisibility cloaking) because they can be tailored with effective medium parameters that do not occur in nature. Recently, the use of coding metamaterials has been suggested for the control of electromagnetic waves through the design of coding sequences using digital elements ‘0’ and ‘1,' which possess opposite phase responses. Here we propose the concept of an anisotropic coding metamaterial in which the coding behaviors in different directions are dependent on the polarization status of the electromagnetic waves. We experimentally demonstrate an ultrathin and flexible polarization-controlled anisotropic coding metasurface that functions in the terahertz regime using specially designed coding elements. By encoding the elements with elaborately designed coding sequences (both 1-bit and 2-bit sequences), the x- and y-polarized waves can be anomalously reflected or independently diffused in three dimensions. The simulated far-field scattering patterns and near-field distributions are presented to illustrate the dual-functional performance of the encoded metasurface, and the results are consistent with the measured results. We further demonstrate the ability of the anisotropic coding metasurfaces to generate a beam splitter and realize simultaneous anomalous reflections and polarization conversions, thus providing powerful control of differently polarized electromagnetic waves. The proposed method enables versatile beam behaviors under orthogonal polarizations using a single metasurface and has the potential for use in the development of interesting terahertz devices. An artificial material that controls electromagnetic waves of different polarization independently has been demonstrated by a team in China. Tie Jun Cui from the Southeast University and co-workers have created a metamaterial that can, for example, split incoming unpolarized radiation so that horizontally polarized light goes one way while vertically polarized light goes the other. Metamaterials are structures that can be engineered to have optical properties not found in natural materials, and they consist of a repeated pattern of elements that are smaller than the wavelength of light. The researchers used two types of element, simple squares and dumbbells, which enabled them to independently control beams of long-wavelength radiation known as terahertz waves having differing polarizations. By reducing the size of the metamaterial elements, the same idea could also be applied to visible light.

/pdf/anisotropic-coding-metamaterials-and-their-powerful-tgkmx3w1br.pdf

Anisotropic coding metamaterials and their powerful manipulation of differently polarized terahertz waves

We present a general theory of effective media to set up the relationship between the particle responses and the macroscopic system behaviors for artificial metamaterials composed of periodic resonant structures. By treating the unit cell of the periodic structure as a particle, we define the average permittivity and permeability for different unit structures and derive a general form of discrete Maxwell's equations on the macroscale, from which we obtain different wave modes in metamaterials including the propagation mode, pure plasma mode, and resonant crystal band-gap mode. We explain unfamiliar behaviors of metamaterials from the numerical S parameter retrieval approach. The excellent agreement between theoretical predictions and retrieval results indicates that the defined model and method of analysis fit the physical structures very well. Thereafter, we propose a more advanced form of the fitting formulas for the effective electromagnetic parameters of metamaterials.

Description and explanation of electromagnetic behaviors in artificial metamaterials based on effective medium theory

An efficient auxiliary-differential equation (ADE) form of the complex frequency shifted perfectly matched layer (CPML) absorbing media derived from a stretched coordinate PML formulation is presented. It is shown that a unit step response of the ADE-CPML equations leads to a discrete form that is identical to Roden's convolutional PML method for FDTD implementations. The derivation of discrete difference operators for the ADE-CPML equations for FDTD is also presented. The ADE-CPML method is also extended in a compact form to a multiple-pole PML formulation. The advantage of the ADE-CPML method is that it provides a more flexible representation that can be extended to higher-order methods. In this paper, it is applied to the discontinuous Galerkin finite element time-domain (DGFETD) method. It is demonstrated that the ADE-CPML maintains the exponential convergence of the DGFETD method.

An Auxiliary Differential Equation Formulation for the Complex-Frequency Shifted PML

Non-conformal and parallel discontinuous Galerkin time domain method for Maxwell's equations: EM analysis of IC packages

In this paper, we present both theoretical analysis and experimental verification of evanescent-wave amplification by using a bilayer periodic circuit structure and its effective medium model. We propose a series-shunt capacitor $(C\text{\ensuremath{-}}C)$ structure to simulate a magnetic plasma, whose permittivity is positive and permeability is negative, and a series-shunt inductor $(L\text{\ensuremath{-}}L)$ structure to simulate an electric plasma, whose permittivity is negative and permeability is positive, in which the structure cells are not required to be electrically small. In addition, we derive and define an effective permittivity and permeability for the $C\text{\ensuremath{-}}C$ and $L\text{\ensuremath{-}}L$ structures in closed forms, which are completely different from the published ones. When the two structures are cascaded together to form a bilayer structure, we show that evanescent waves which exist in two single layers independently can be amplified exponentially if a certain resonant condition is satisfied. Such a resonant condition is equivalent to the antimatching condition for the permittivity and permeability of the effectively electric and magnetic plasmas. To show the accuracy of this equivalent medium model, we compare both circuit-simulation results for the $C\text{\ensuremath{-}}C$ and $L\text{\ensuremath{-}}L$ structures and theoretical-prediction results for the effective magnetic and electric plasmas, which have excellent agreement. Finally, we design an experiment using lumped capacitors and inductors mounted on a printed circuit board to verify the amplification of evanescent waves sufficiently. The measurement results have good agreement with the simulation results.

Evanescent-wave amplification studied using a bilayer periodic circuit structure and its effective medium model

We present a generally symmetrical circuit model to describe all kinds of metamaterials with effective permittivity and permeability. The model is composed of periodic structures whose unit cell is a general T-type circuit. Using the effective medium theory, we derive analytical formulations for the effective permittivity and effective permeability of the circuit model, which are quite different from the published formulas (1, 2). Rigorous study shows that such a generally symmetrical model can represent right-handed materials, left-handed materials, pure electric plasmas, pure magnetic plasmas, electric-type and magnetic-type crystal bandgap materials at different frequency regimes, with corresponding effective medium parameters. Circuit simulations of real periodic structures and theoretical results of effective medium models in this paper and in (1) and (2) are presented. The comparison of such results shows that the proposed medium model is much more accurate than the published medium model (1, 2) in the whole frequency band.

/pdf/a-symmetrical-circuit-model-describing-all-kinds-of-circuit-4vsmlajitr.pdf

Bo Zhao

Papers

Description and explanation of electromagnetic behaviors in artificial metamaterials based on effective medium theory

An Auxiliary Differential Equation Formulation for the Complex-Frequency Shifted PML

Non-conformal and parallel discontinuous Galerkin time domain method for Maxwell's equations: EM analysis of IC packages

Evanescent-wave amplification studied using a bilayer periodic circuit structure and its effective medium model

A symmetrical circuit model describing all kinds of circuit metamaterials