Showing papers on "Transformation optics published in 2012"

From metamaterials to metadevices.

Abstract: Metamaterials, artificial electromagnetic media that are structured on the subwavelength scale, were initially suggested for the negative-index 'superlens'. Later metamaterials became a paradigm for engineering electromagnetic space and controlling propagation of waves: the field of transformation optics was born. The research agenda is now shifting towards achieving tunable, switchable, nonlinear and sensing functionalities. It is therefore timely to discuss the emerging field of metadevices where we define the devices as having unique and useful functionalities that are realized by structuring of functional matter on the subwavelength scale. In this Review we summarize research on photonic, terahertz and microwave electromagnetic metamaterials and metadevices with functionalities attained through the exploitation of phase-change media, semiconductors, graphene, carbon nanotubes and liquid crystals. The Review also encompasses microelectromechanical metadevices, metadevices engaging the nonlinear and quantum response of superconductors, electrostatic and optomechanical forces and nonlinear metadevices incorporating lumped nonlinear components.

Gradient-index meta-surfaces as a bridge linking propagating waves and surface waves

Abstract: The arbitrary control of electromagnetic waves is a key aim of photonic research. Although, for example, the control of freely propagating waves (PWs) and surface waves (SWs) has separately become possible using transformation optics and metamaterials, a bridge linking both propagation types has not yet been found. Such a device has particular relevance given the many schemes of controlling electromagnetic waves at surfaces and interfaces, leading to trapped rainbows, lensing, beam bending, deflection, and even anomalous reflection/refraction. Here, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that a specific gradient-index meta-surface can convert a PW to a SW with nearly 100% efficiency. Distinct from conventional devices such as prism or grating couplers, the momentum mismatch between PW and SW is compensated by the reflection-phase gradient of the meta-surface, and a nearly perfect PW-SW conversion can happen for any incidence angle larger than a critical value. Experiments in the microwave region, including both far-field and near-field characterizations, are in excellent agreement with full-wave simulations. Our findings may pave the way for many applications, including high-efficiency surface plasmon couplers, anti-reflection surfaces, light absorbers, and so on.

Experiments on elastic cloaking in thin plates.

Abstract: Following a theoretical proposal [M. Farhat et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 024301 (2009)], we design, fabricate, and characterize a cloaking structure for elastic waves in 1 mm thin structured polymer plates. The cloak consists of 20 concentric rings of 16 different metamaterials, each being a tailored composite of polyvinyl chloride and polydimethylsiloxane. By using stroboscopic imaging with a camera from the direction normal to the plate, we record movies of the elastic waves for monochromatic plane-wave excitation. We observe good cloaking behavior for carrier frequencies in the range from 200 to 400 Hz (one octave), in good agreement with a complete continuum-mechanics numerical treatment. This system is thus ideally suited for demonstration experiments conveying the ideas of transformation optics.

On the practicability of pentamode mechanical metamaterials

Abstract: Conceptually, all conceivable three-dimensional mechanical materials can be built from pentamode materials. Pentamodes also enable to implement three-dimensional transformation elastodynamics—the analogue of transformation optics. However, pentamodes have not been realized experimentally. Here, we investigate inasmuch the pentamode theoretical ideal suggested by Milton and Cherkaev in 1995 can be approximated by a metamaterial with current state-of-the-art lithography. Using numerical calculations calibrated by our fabricated three-dimensional microstructures, we find that the figure of merit, i.e., the ratio of bulk modulus to shear modulus, can realistically be made as large as about 1000.

Wire metamaterials: physics and applications.

Abstract: The physics and applications of a broad class of artificial electromagnetic materials composed of lattices of aligned metal rods embedded in a dielectric matrix are reviewed. Such structures are here termed wire metamaterials. They appear in various settings and can operate from microwaves to THz and optical frequencies. An important group of these metamaterials is a wire medium possessing extreme optical anisotropy. The study of wire metamaterials has a long history, however, most of their important and useful properties have been revealed and understood only recently, especially in the THz and optical frequency ranges where the wire media correspond to the lattices of microwires and nanowires, respectively. Another group of wire metamaterials are arrays and lattices of nanorods of noble metals whose unusual properties are driven by plasmonic resonances.

Transformation optics and subwavelength control of light

Abstract: Our intuitive understanding of light has its foundation in the ray approximation and is intimately connected with our vision. As far as our eyes are concerned, light behaves like a stream of particles. We look inside the wavelength and study the properties of plasmonic structures with dimensions of just a few nanometers, where at a tenth or even a hundredth of the wavelength of visible light the ray picture fails. We review the concept of transformation optics that manipulates electric and magnetic field lines, rather than rays; can provide an equally intuitive understanding of subwavelength phenomena; and at the same time can be an exact description at the level of Maxwell's equations.

Generalized laws of reflection and refraction from transformation optics

Abstract: Based on transformation optics, we introduce another set of generalized laws of reflection and refraction (differs from that of [Science 334, 333 (2011)]), through which a transformation media slab is derived as a meta-surface, producing anomalous reflection and refraction for all polarizations of incident light.

Broadband electromagnetic cloaking with smart metamaterials

Abstract: The ability to render objects invisible with a cloak that fits all objects and sizes is a long-standing goal for optical devices. Invisibility devices demonstrated so far typically comprise a rigid structure wrapped around an object to which it is fitted. Here we demonstrate smart metamaterial cloaking, wherein the metamaterial device not only transforms electromagnetic fields to make an object invisible, but also acquires its properties automatically from its own elastic deformation. The demonstrated device is a ground-plane microwave cloak composed of an elastic metamaterial with a broad operational band (10-12 GHz) and nearly lossless electromagnetic properties. The metamaterial is uniform, or perfectly periodic, in its undeformed state and acquires the necessary gradient-index profile, mimicking a quasi-conformal transformation, naturally from a boundary load. This easy-to-fabricate hybrid elasto-electromagnetic metamaterial opens the door to implementations of a variety of transformation optics devices based on quasi-conformal maps.

Optofluidic waveguide as a transformation optics device for lightwave bending and manipulation

Abstract: Transformation optics represents a new paradigm for designing light-manipulating devices, such as cloaks and field concentrators, through the engineering of electromagnetic space using materials with spatially variable parameters. Here we analyse liquid flowing in an optofluidic waveguide as a new type of controllable transformation optics medium. We show that a laminar liquid flow in an optofluidic channel exhibits spatially variable dielectric properties that support novel wave-focussing and interference phenomena, which are distinctively different from the discrete diffraction observed in solid waveguide arrays. Our work provides new insight into the unique optical properties of optofluidic waveguides and their potential applications.

A metamaterial waveguide lens

Abstract: A metamaterial waveguide structure is disclosed. In some approaches the metamaterial waveguide structure is compressed along an optical axis using transformation optics techniques. An example is a Rotman lens that is compressed by 27 percent along the optical axis while maintaining the beam steering range, gain and side lobe amplitudes over a broad frequency range. In some approaches the metamaterial waveguide structure includes a plurality of complementary metamaterial elements patterned on a conducting surface of the waveguide.

Liquid crystal based nonlinear fishnet metamaterials

Abstract: We study experimentally the nonlinear properties of fishnet metamaterials infiltrated with nematic liquid crystals and find that moderate laser powers result in significant changes of the optical transmission of the composite structures. We also show that the nonlinear response of our structure can be further tuned with a bias electric field, enabling the realization of electrically tunable nonlinear metamaterials.

Time-Domain Finite Element Methods for Maxwell's Equations in Metamaterials

Abstract: The purpose of this book is to provide an up-to-date introduction to the time-domain finite element methods for Maxwells equations involving metamaterials. Since the first successful construction of a metamaterial with both negative permittivity and permeability in 2000, the study of metamaterials has attracted significant attention from researchers across many disciplines. Thanks to enormous efforts on the part of engineers and physicists, metamaterials present great potential applications in antenna and radar design, sub-wavelength imaging, and invisibility cloak design. Hence the efficient simulation of electromagnetic phenomena in metamaterials has become a very important issue and is the subject of this book, in which various metamaterial modeling equations are introduced and justified mathematically. The development and practical implementation of edge finite element methods for metamaterial Maxwells equations are the main focus of the book. The book finishes with some interesting simulations such as backward wave propagation and time-domain cloaking with metamaterials.

Realizing bending waveguides with anisotropic epsilon-near-zero metamaterials

Abstract: We study metamaterials with an anisotropic effective permittivity tensor in which one component is near zero. We find that such an anisotropic metamaterial can be used to control wave propagation and construct almost perfect bending waveguides with a high transmission rate (>95%). This interesting effect originates in the power flow redistribution by the surface waves on the input and output interfaces, which smoothly matches with the propagating modes inside the metamaterial waveguide. We also find that waves in such anisotropic epsilon-near-zero materials can be reflected by small-sized perfect magnetic conductor defects. Numerical calculations have been performed to confirm the above effects.

Magnetic energy harvesting and concentration at a distance by transformation optics.

Abstract: Based on transformation optics, we introduce a magnetic shell with which one can harvest magnetic energy and distribute it as desired in space with unprecedented efficiency at an arbitrary scale. It allows a very large concentration of magnetic energy in a free space region, which can be used for increasing the sensitivity of magnetic sensors, and the transfer of magnetic energy from a source to a given distant point separated by empty space, with possible applications in wireless transmission of energy.

Broadband polygonal invisibility cloak for visible light

Abstract: Invisibility cloaks have recently become a topic of considerable interest thanks to the theoretical works of transformation optics and conformal mapping. The design of the cloak involves extreme values of material properties and spatially dependent parameter tensors, which are very difficult to implement. The realization of an isolated invisibility cloak in the visible light, which is an important step towards achieving a fully movable invisibility cloak, has remained elusive. Here, we report the design and experimental demonstration of an isolated polygonal cloak for visible light. The cloak is made of several elements, whose electromagnetic parameters are designed by a linear homogeneous transformation method. Theoretical analysis shows the proposed cloak can be rendered invisible to the rays incident from all the directions. Using natural anisotropic materials, a simplified hexagonal cloak which works for six incident directions is fabricated for experimental demonstration. The performance is validated in a broadband visible spectrum.

3D printing of anisotropic metamaterials

Abstract: Material properties in radio frequency and microwave regimes are limited due to the lack of molecular resonances at these frequencies. Metamaterials are an attractive means to realize a prescribed permittivity or permeability function, but these are often prohibitively lossy due to the use of ine-cient metallic resonators. All-dielectric metamaterials ofier excellent potential to overcome these losses, but they provide a much weaker interaction with an applied wave. Much design freedom can be realized from all-dielectric structures if their dispersion and anisotropy are cleverly engineered. This, however, leads to structures with very complex geometries that cannot be manufactured by conventional techniques. In this work, artiflcially anisotropic metamaterials are designed and then manufactured by 3D printing. The efiective material properties are measured in the lab and agree well with model predictions.

Recent advances in transformation optics

Abstract: Within the past a few years, transformation optics has emerged as a new research area, since it provides a general methodology and design tool for manipulating electromagnetic waves in a prescribed manner. Using transformation optics, researchers have demonstrated a host of striking phenomena and devices; many of which were only thought possible in science fiction. In this paper, we review the most recent advances in transformation optics. We focus on the theory, design, fabrication and characterization of transformation devices such as the carpet cloak, “Janus” lens and plasmonic cloak at optical frequencies, which allow routing light at the nanoscale. We also provide an outlook of the challenges and future directions in this fascinating area of transformation optics.

Integrated photonic systems based on transformation optics enabled gradient index devices

Abstract: Integrated photonics is expected to play an increasingly important role in optical communications, imaging, computing and sensing with the promise for significant reduction in the cost and weight of these systems. Future advancement of this technology is critically dependent on an ability to develop compact and reliable optical components and facilitate their integration on a common substrate. Here we reveal, with the utility of the emerging transformation optics technique, that functional components composed of planar gradient index materials can be designed and readily integrated into photonic circuits. The unprecedented design flexibility of transformation optics allows for the creation of a number of novel devices, such as a light source collimator, waveguide adapters and a waveguide crossing, which have broad applications in integrated photonic chips and are compatible with current fabrication technology. Using the finite-difference time-domain method, we perform full-wave numerical simulations to demonstrate their superior optical performance and efficient integration with other components in an on-chip photonic system. These components only require spatially-varying dielectric materials with no magnetic properties, facilitating low-loss, broadband operation in an integrated photonic environment. Using transformation optics, researchers have built miniature gradient-index components for collimating, coupling and splitting light beams. Transformation optics is a popular theoretical approach for designing novel metamaterial-based photonic devices such as invisibility cloaks and perfect light absorbers. Qi Wu, Jeremiah Turpin and Douglas Werner from The Pennsylvania State University in the USA have now used transformation optics to design miniature gradient-index components. The small size and all-dielectric nature of these components means that they can be easily implemented by standard nanofabrication techniques such as silicon-on-insulator patterning, and are well-suited for integration with planar on-chip photonic systems. The researchers suggest that the approach could also yield nanoscale circuitry for controlling surface plasmons in applications such as optical communications, computing and sensing.

Coherent amplification and noise in gain-enhanced nanoplasmonic metamaterials: a Maxwell-Bloch Langevin approach.

Abstract: Nanoplasmonic metamaterials are an exciting new class of engineered media that promise a range of important applications, such as subwavelength focusing, cloaking, and slowing/stopping of light. At optical frequencies, using gain to overcome potentially not insignificant losses has recently emerged as a viable solution to ultra-low-loss operation that may lead to next-generation active metamaterials. Maxwell-Bloch models for active nanoplasmonic metamaterials are able to describe the coherent spatiotemporal and nonlinear gain-plasmon dynamics. Here, we extend the Maxwell-Bloch theory to a Maxwell-Bloch Langevin approach-a spatially resolved model that describes the light field and noise dynamics in gain-enhanced nanoplasmonic structures. Using the example of an optically pumped nanofishnet metamaterial with an embedded laser dye (four-level) medium exhibiting a negative refractive index, we demonstrate the transition from loss-compensation to amplification and to nanolasing. We observe ultrafast relaxation oscillations of the bright negative-index mode with frequencies just below the THz regime. The influence of noise on mode competition and the onset and magnitude of the relaxation oscillations is elucidated, and the dynamics and spectra of the emitted light indicate that coherent amplification and lasing are maintained even in the presence of noise and amplified spontaneous emission.

Planar, flattened Luneburg lens at infrared wavelengths.

Abstract: Employing artificially structured metamaterials provides a means of circumventing the limits of conventional optical materials. Here, we use transformation optics (TO) combined with nanolithography to produce a planar Luneburg lens with a flat focal surface that operates at telecommunication wavelengths. Whereas previous infrared TO devices have been transformations of free-space, here we implement a transformation of an existing optical element to create a new device with the same optical characteristics but a user-defined geometry.

Optical field enhancement in nanoscale slot waveguides of hyperbolic metamaterials.

Abstract: Nanoscale slot waveguides of hyperbolic metamaterials are proposed and demonstrated for achieving large optical field enhancement. The dependence of the enhanced electric field within the air slot on waveguide mode coupling and permittivity tensors of hyperbolic metamaterials is analyzed both numerically and analytically. Optical intensity in the metamaterial slot waveguide can be more than 25 times stronger than that in a conventional silicon slot waveguide, due to tight optical mode confinement enabled by the ultrahigh refractive indices supported in hyperbolic metamaterials. The electric field enhancement effects are also verified with the realistic metal-dielectric multilayer waveguide structure.

Elastic metamaterials with local resonances: an overview

Abstract: Metamaterials are artificial composite materials engineered to have properties that may not be found in nature. By exploring locally resonant effect of the building units, elastic metamaterials are able to possess negative values of effective mass, effective bulk or shear modulus. Mass-spring and continuum material versions of these elastic metamaterials are reported and the physical mechanisms of negative effective parameters are demonstrated. Applications of metamaterials to acoustic cloaking and superlensing are also discussed.

3D THz metamaterials from micro/nanomanufacturing

Abstract: Metamaterials are engineered composite materials offering unprecedented control of wave propagation. Despite their complexity, effective properties can frequently be extracted by conceptualizing them as homogeneous and isotropic media with dispersive electric permittivity and magnetic permeability. For an ideal isotropic medium, strong dispersion in these properties causes wave and field vectors to form a left-handed (E,H,k)-frame involving backward waves, and offering control of quantities like the refractive index which may become negative. Experimental evidence exists from microwaves to the visible. Applications include sub-wavelength-resolution imaging, invisibility cloaking, plasmonics-based lasers, metananocircuits, and omnidirectional absorbers. As the engineered sub-structures must be smaller than their design wavelength, micro/nanomanufacturing is exploited from primary pattern generation over lithography to templating and molecular beam epitaxy. 3D metamaterials have been made by stacking of layers, multilayer structuring, and 3D primary pattern generation. Theory shows that full properties may build up over one or a very few layers.

Transformation optics using graphene: One-atom-thick optical devices based on graphene

Abstract: Metamaterials and transformation optics have received considerable attention in the recent years, as they have found an immense role in many areas of optical science and engineering by offering schemes to control electromagnetic fields. Another area of science that has been under the spotlight for the last few years relates to exploration of graphene, which is formed of carbon atoms densely packed into a honey-comb lattice. This material exhibits unconventional electronic and optical properties, intriguing many research groups across the world including us. But our interest is mostly in studying interaction of electromagnetic waves with graphene and applications that might follow. Our group as well as few others pioneered investigating prospect of graphene for plasmonic devices and in particular plasmonic metamaterial structures and transformation optical devices. In this thesis, relying on theoretical models and numerical simulations, we show that by designing and manipulating spatially inhomogeneous, nonuniform conductivity patterns across a flake of graphene, one can have this material as a one-atom-thick platform for infrared metamaterials and transformation optical devices. Varying the graphene chemical potential by using static electric field allows for tuning the graphene conductivity in the terahertz and infrared frequencies. Such design flexibility can be exploited to create "patches" with differing conductivities within a single flake of graphene. Numerous photonic functions and metamaterial concepts are expected to follow from such platform. This work presents several numerical examples demonstrating these functions. Our findings show that it is possible to design one-atom-thick variant of several optical elements analogous to those in classic optics. Here we theoretically study one-atom-thick metamaterials, one-atom-thick waveguide elements, cavities, mirrors, lenses, Fourier optics and finally a few case studies illustrating transformation optics on a single sheet of graphene in mid-infrared wavelengths.

Design of High-Gain Lens Antenna by Gradient-Index Metamaterials Using Transformation Optics

Abstract: Transformation of space coordinates can be used as a convenient tool for producing a controlled electromagnetic field pattern. In this paper, using a conformal transformation, the design procedure of a lens antenna with high gain and low sidelobes is presented which can be realized by isotropic graded refractive index (GRIN) materials. Applying proper simplifying techniques, the designed lens can be made by non-resonant metamaterials or non-magnetic dielectrics having wide frequency band and low loss. A graded photonic crystal (GPC) operating in metamaterial regime is used for this purpose. By placing the lens in a horn antenna, a highly directive beam is achieved. It is also shown that by lateral displacement of the lens medium, the beam direction can be controlled to some extent. A multibeam antenna in which each beam can be controlled independently is also presented. Simulation results are used to justify the design approach.

Enhancement of near-cloaking for the full Maxwell equations

Abstract: In this paper, we consider near cloaking for the full Maxwell equations. We extend the recent results, where the quasi-static limit case and the Helmholtz equation are considered, to electromagnetic scattering problems. We construct very effective near cloaking structures for the electromagnetic scattering problem at a fixed frequency. These new structures are, before using the transformation optics, layered structures and are designed so that their first scattering coefficients vanish. Inside the cloaking region, any target has near-zero scattering cross section for a band of frequencies. We analytically show that our new construction significantly enhances the cloaking effect for the full Maxwell equations.

Low-Loss Impedance-Matched Optical Metamaterials with Zero-Phase Delay

Abstract: Metamaterials have dramatically expanded the range of available optical properties, enabling an array of new devices such as superlenses, perfect absorbers, and ultrafast switches. Most research has focused on demonstrating negative- and high-index metamaterials at terahertz and optical wavelengths. However, far less emphasis has been placed on low-loss near-zero-index metamaterials that exhibit unique properties including quasi-infinite phase velocity and infinite wavelength. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a free-standing metallodielectric fishnet nanostructure that has polarization-insensitive, zero-index properties with nearly ideal transmission at 1.55 μm. This goal was achieved by optimizing the metamaterial geometry to allow both its effective permittivity and permeability to approach zero together, which simultaneously produces a zero index and matched impedance to free space. The ability to design and fabricate low-loss, near-zero-index optical metamaterials is essential for new devices such as beam collimators, zero-phase delay lines, and transformation optics lenses.

Possible implementation of epsilon-near-zero metamaterials working at optical frequencies

Abstract: Metamaterials (MTMs) exhibiting a near-zero real part of the permittivity function in a given frequency range have been demonstrated to be useful in several application fields, including field localization and focusing So far, however, the realistic implementations of such materials working at optical frequencies and exhibiting a reasonable level of losses are rare In this work, we propose a possible implementation of optical epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) MTMs based on the employment of an array of core-shell nano-spheres embedded in a dielectric medium The core of the nano-spheres and the host medium are both made of silica, while the shell is formed by a plasmonic material (ie silver) Using classical homogenization formulas, we show that it is possible to design the array in such a way to exhibit near-zero values of the effective real permittivity with relatively low losses at optical frequencies These results are supported and confirmed by proper full-wave simulations and design examples

Nonlocal transformation optics.

Abstract: We show that the powerful framework of transformation optics may be exploited for engineering the nonlocal response of artificial electromagnetic materials. Relying on the form-invariant properties of coordinate-transformed Maxwell's equations in the spectral domain, we derive the general constitutive ``blueprints'' of transformation media yielding prescribed nonlocal field-manipulation effects and provide a physically incisive and powerful geometrical interpretation in terms of deformation of the equifrequency contours. In order to illustrate the potentials of our approach, we present an example of application to a wave-splitting refraction scenario, which may be implemented via a simple class of artificial materials. Our results provide a systematic and versatile framework which may open intriguing venues in dispersion engineering of artificial materials.

Electrodynamics of transformation-based invisibility cloaking

Abstract: After the invention of transformation optics in 2006, scientists began developing ways to direct electromagnetic radiation around objects. Baile Zhang from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore reviews the progress made towards such ‘invisibility cloaks’ and surveys the challenges lying ahead. He describes the transition from artificial structures known as metamaterials, which are traditionally the basis of invisibility cloaks, to natural materials, which have been used very recently to implement such devices. By considering both science and engineering perspectives, Zhang discusses approaches for optimizing, in an iterative manner, the properties of cloak materials and device performance targets. He identifies two key challenges toward future applications: overcoming bandwidth limitations and the implementation of three-dimensional cloaking structures.