Broadband ground-plane cloak

Numerical investigation of terahertz polarization-independent multiband ultrahigh refractive index metamaterial by bilayer metallic rectangular ring structure

Multiband high index of refraction can be realized by thin ring-type terahertz metamaterials composed of multilayer coupled unit cells. We have focused on the numerical investigation of this type of a metamaterial. By drastically decreasing the diamagnetic effect with a thin metallic structure in the unit cell and by increasing the effective permittivity through strong capacitive coupling, a bandwidth of 1.5 THz with an index of more than 24 can be achieved using a single-layer thin brick-type metamaterial. The refractive index peak is 35. Then, we design a ring-type metamaterial structure, achieving a refractive index of 91 at about 0.45 THz, which is due to a decrease in the diamagnetic effect with smaller area surrounded by toroidal currents. Based on the coupling effects of double layer ring-type metamaterials or single-layer double ring-type structures, the refractive index peaks reach 43.2 and 18.68 at 0.43 THz and 0.92 THz, respectively. A three-layer ring-type metamaterial structure is proposed to obtain three band high index metamaterials.

Multiband high index of refraction can be realized by thin ring-type terahertz metamaterials composed of multilayer coupled unit cells.

Implementing Quantum Search Algorithm with Metamaterials

Metamaterials, artificially structured electromagnetic (EM) materials, have enabled the realization of many unconventional EM properties not found in nature, such as negative refractive index, magnetic response, invisibility cloaking, and so on. Based on these man-made materials with novel EM properties, various devices are designed and realized. However, quantum analog devices based on metamaterials have not been achieved so far. Here, metamaterials are designed and printed to perform quantum search algorithm. The structures, comprising of an array of 2D subwavelength air holes with different radii perforated on the dielectric layer, are fabricated using a 3D-printing technique. When an incident wave enters in the designed metamaterials, the profile of beam wavefront is processed iteratively as it propagates through the metamaterial periodically. After ≈N roundtrips, precisely the same as the efficiency of quantum search algorithm, searched items will be found with the incident wave all focusing on the marked positions. Such a metamaterial-based quantum searching simulator may lead to remarkable achievements in wave-based signal processors.

Carbon Nanotube Embedded Nanostructure for Biometrics

Low electric energy loss is a very important problem to minimize the decay of transferred energy intensity due to impedance mismatch. This issue has been dealt with by adding an impedance matching layer at the interface between two media. A strategy was proposed to improve the charge transfer from the human body to a biometric device by using an impedance matching nanostructure. Nanocomposite pattern arrays were fabricated with shape memory polymer and carbon nanotubes. The shape recovery ability of the nanopatterns enhanced durability and sustainability of the structure. It was found that the composite nanopatterns improved the current transfer by two times compared with the nonpatterned composite sample. The underlying mechanism of the enhanced charge transport was understood by carrying out a numerical simulation. We anticipate that this study can provide a new pathway for developing advanced biometric devices with high sensitivity to biological information.

Constructing Repairable Meta-Structures of Ultra-Broad-Band Electromagnetic Absorption from Three-Dimensional Printed Patterned Shells

Ultra-broad-band electromagnetic absorption materials and structures are increasingly attractive for their critical role in competing with the advanced broad-band electromagnetic detection systems. Mechanically soft and weak wax-based materials composites are known to be insufficient to serve in practical electromagnetic absorption applications. To break through such barriers, here we developed an innovative strategy to enable the wax-based composites to be robust and repairable meta-structures by employing a three-dimensional (3D) printed polymeric patterned shell. Because of the integrated merits from both the dielectric loss wax-based composites and mechanically robust 3D printed shells, the as-fabricated meta-structures enable bear mechanical collision and compression, coupled with ultra-broad-band absorption (7-40 and 75-110 GHz, reflection loss  smaller than -10 dB) approaching state-of-the-art electromagnetic absorption materials. With the assistance of experiment and simulation methods, the design advantages and mechanism of employing such 3D printed shells for substantially promoting the electromagnetic absorption performance have been demonstrated. Therefore, such universal strategy that could be widely extended to other categories of wax-based composites highlights a smart stage on which high-performance practical multifunction meta-structures with ultra-broad-band electromagnetic absorption could be envisaged.

Integrated radiation and scattering performance of a multifunctional artificial electromagnetic surface

In this paper, a multifunctional artificial electromagnetic surface (AEMS) with integrated radiation and scattering performance is proposed and realized. Different from previous AEMS designs that mainly focus on scattering performance, this AEMS design takes both radiation and scattering properties into consideration in the designing process. Inspired by the design concept of antenna, a feeding structure is added to each AEMS element to achieve radiation performance. Meanwhile, the concerned characteristics of AEMS elements are almost maintained. For achieving wideband low-scattering performance, two different kinds of AEMS elements are designed and arranged in a chessboard configuration. Simulated and measured results prove that our method offers an effective strategy to design multifunctional AEMS that achieve radiation and scattering performance simultaneously.

Carpet cloak for water waves

Cloaking is a challenging topic in the field of wave motion, and is of significant theoretical value. In this article, a type of carpet cloak has been theoretically designed for water waves by using the effective medium and transformation theory. This carpet cloak device, created by a three-dimensional printer, is composed of a periodic structure which realizes the equivalent anisotropic water depth. We demonstrate its excellent cloaking performance numerically and experimentally in a wide range of frequencies and angles of incidence, with low wave attenuation characteristics and simple device realization of this carpet cloak illustrating that water wave transformation is a powerful method with which to manipulate water waves.

Ultra-Thin Multi-Band Polarization-Insensitive Microwave Metamaterial Absorber Based on Multiple-Order Responses Using a Single Resonator Structure

We design an ultra-thin multi-band polarization-insensitive metamaterial absorber (MMA) using a single circular sector resonator (CSR) structure in the microwave region. Simulated results show that the proposed MMA has three distinctive absorption peaks at 3.35 GHz, 8.65 GHz, and 12.44 GHz, with absorbance of 98.8%, 99.7%, and 98.3%, respectively, which agree well with an experiment. Simulated surface current distributions of the unit-cell structure reveal that the triple-band absorption mainly originates from multiple-harmonic magnetic resonance. The proposed triple-band MMA can remain at a high absorption level for all polarization of both transverse-electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM) modes under normal incidence. Moreover, by further optimizing the geometric parameters of the CSRs, four-band and five-band MMAs can also be obtained. Thus, our design will have potential application in detection, sensing, and stealth technology.

Enhanced optical performance of multifocal metalens with conic shapes

A multifocal metalens, which focuses incident light at multiple foci, has many applications in imaging systems and optical communications. However, the traditional design strategy of a multifocal metalens combines several lenses that have different focal points into a planar integrated unit, resulting in low imaging quality because of the high background noise. Here we show that the defects of the traditional method can be overcome by designing a metalens with conic shapes (the ellipse and the hyperbola); this approach could improve the imaging performance and substantially decrease the background noise of multifocal metalenses. These benefits arise from the intrinsic properties of the two conic curves, which can focus incident light constructively at all of the foci of the metalens. We further demonstrate that the proposed conic-shaped metalens can function well within a broadband operation wavelength that ranges from 600 to 900 nm with the dual polarity actively controlled by the incident circular polarized light. The great agreement between the experimental and simulation results demonstrates that our proposed metalens has significant potential for use in future integrated nanophotonic devices.

Accurate Design of Low Backscattering Metasurface Using Iterative Fourier Transform Algorithm

An accurate method is proposed to design low-backscattering metasurfaces efficiently using an iterative Fourier transform algorithm, which avoids the large amount of time-consuming numerical simulations of complicated electromagnetic problems and provides satisfactory performance to reduce the backward scattering. As an example of the application, a broadband low-backscattering metasurface is designed, fabricated, and characterized. Both full-wave simulation and measured results reveal that the proposed method offers a rapid and efficient tool to manipulate the scattering behaviors of the metasurface, and thus realizes significant scattering reductions.

Controlling Energy Radiations of Electromagnetic Waves via Frequency Coding Metamaterials

Metamaterials are artificial structures composed of subwavelength unit cells to control electromagnetic (EM) waves. The spatial coding representation of metamaterial has the ability to describe the material in a digital way. The spatial coding metamaterials are typically constructed by unit cells that have similar shapes with fixed functionality. Here, the concept of frequency coding metamaterial is proposed, which achieves different controls of EM energy radiations with a fixed spatial coding pattern when the frequency changes. In this case, not only different phase responses of the unit cells are considered, but also different phase sensitivities are also required. Due to different frequency sensitivities of unit cells, two units with the same phase response at the initial frequency may have different phase responses at higher frequency. To describe the frequency coding property of unit cell, digitalized frequency sensitivity is proposed, in which the units are encoded with digits "0" and "1" to represent the low and high phase sensitivities, respectively. By this merit, two degrees of freedom, spatial coding and frequency coding, are obtained to control the EM energy radiations by a new class of frequency-spatial coding metamaterials. The above concepts and physical phenomena are confirmed by numerical simulations and experiments.

Long distance invisibility system to hide dynamic objects with high selectivity

With the development of invisibility technology, invisibility devices have now become more practical, with properties such as working at visible wavelengths, using natural materials, and hiding macroscopic objects. Recently, the cloaking of dynamic objects was experimentally realized using ray-optics. Here, based on a phase retrieval algorithm and phase conjugation technology, we design and fabricate a system to hide dynamic objects that changes at speeds faster than 8 seconds per frame. Different from shell cloaks and carpet-like cloaks, which conceal the entire region covered by the cloak, our system works when the object is at a distance and hides only the selected part of an object when the entire object is within the working area of the system. We experimentally demonstrate the concealment of a millimeter-scale object at different wavelengths. We believe that our work may provide a new approach to hiding objects in real life and may also be applicable in biological imaging and atmospheric imaging.

Quantum illumination reveals phase-shift inducing cloaking

In quantum illumination entangled light is employed to enhance the detection accuracy of an object when compared with the best classical protocol. On the other hand, cloaking is a stealth technology based on covering a target with a material deflecting the light around the object to avoid its detection. Here, we propose a quantum illumination protocol especially adapted to quantum microwave technology. This protocol seizes the phase-shift induced by some cloaking techniques, such as scattering reduction, allowing for a 3 dB improvement in the detection of a cloaked target. The method can also be employed for the detection of a phase-shift in bright environments in different frequency regimes. Finally, we study the minimal efficiency required by the photocounter for which the quantum illumination protocol still shows a gain with respect to the classical protocol.

Broadband cloaking of flexural waves

The governing equation for elastic waves in flexural plates is not form invariant, and hence designing a cloak for such waves faces a major challenge. Here, we present the design of a perfect broadband cloak for flexural waves through the use of a nonlinear transformation in the region of the cloak and by matching term by term the original and transformed equations and also assuming a prestressed material with body forces. For a readily achievable flexural cloak in a physical setting, we further present an approximate adoption of our perfect cloak under more restrictive physical constraints. Through direct simulation of the governing equations, we show that this cloak, as well, maintains a consistently high cloaking efficiency over a broad range of frequencies. The methodology developed here may be used for steering waves and designing cloaks in other physical systems with non-form-invariant governing equations.

Scalable variable-index elasto-optic metamaterials for macroscopic optical components and devices

Optical metamaterials with an artificial subwavelength structure offer new approaches to implement advanced optical devices. However, some of the biggest challenges associated with the development of metamaterials in the visible spectrum are the high costs and slow production speeds of the nanofabrication processes. Here, we demonstrate a macroscale (>35 mm) transformation-optics wave bender (293 mm²) and Luneburg lens (855 mm²) in the broadband white-light visible wavelength range using the concept of elasto-optic metamaterials that combines optics and solid mechanics. Our metamaterials consist of mesoscopically homogeneous chunks of bulk aerogels with superior, broadband optical transparency across the visible spectrum and an adjustable, stress-tuneable refractive index ranging from 1.43 down to nearly the free space index (∼1.074). The experimental results show that broadband light can be controlled and redirected in a volume of >10⁵λ × 10⁵λ × 10³λ, which enables natural light to be processed directly by metamaterial-based optical devices without any additional coupling components.

Ultrathin metasurface-based carpet cloak for terahertz wave

Ultrathin metasurfaces with local phase compensation deliver new schemes to cloaking devices. Here, a large-scale carpet cloak consisting of an ultrathin metasurface is demonstrated numerically and experimentally in the terahertz regime. The proposed carpet cloak is designed based on discontinuous-phase metallic resonators fabricated on a polyimide substrate, offering a wide range of reflection phase variations and an excellent wavefront manipulation along the edges of the bump. The invisibility is verified when the cloak is placed on a reflecting triangular surface (bump). The multi-step discrete phase design method would greatly simplify the design process and is probable to achieve large-dimension cloaks, for applications in radar and antenna systems as a thin, lightweight, and easy-to-fabricate solution for radio and terahertz frequencies.

Full-State Controls of Terahertz Waves Using Tensor Coding Metasurfaces

Coding metasurfaces allow us to study metamaterials from a fully digital perspective, enabling many exotic functionalities, such as anomalous reflections, broadband diffusions, and polarization conversion. Here, we propose a tensor coding metasurface at terahertz (THz) frequency that could take full-state controls of an electromagnetic wave in terms of its polarization state, phase and amplitude distributions, and wave-vector mode. Owing to the off-diagonal elements that dominant in the reflection matrix, each coding particle could reflect the normally incident wave to its cross-polarization with controllable phases, resulting in different coding digits. A 3-bit tensor coding metasurface with three coding sequences is taken as an example to show its full-state controls in reflecting a normally incident THz beam to anomalous directions with cross-polarizations and making a spatially propagating wave (PW) to surface wave (SW) conversion at the THz frequency. We show that the proposed PW-SW convertor based on the tensor coding metasurface supports both x- and y-polarized normal incidences, producing cross-polarized transverse-magnetic and transverse-electric modes of THz SWs, respectively.

Optimized microwave illusion device

We report the design, fabrication and experimental verification of an illusion device working at microwave frequencies. A two dimensional topology optimization procedure is employed to find the binary layout of a dielectric coating that, when wrapped around a metallic cylinder, mimics the scattering from a predefined, arbitrarily-shaped dielectric object. Fabrication is carried out with 3D-printing and spatially resolved near field measurements in a waveguide configuration were performed, allowing us to map the illusion effect. Our work provides general guidelines for engineering electromagnetic illusions but can be extended to shape the near and far-field radiations using low index isotropic materials.

Quantized chiral anomaly materials cloak

Chiral anomaly materials (CAM, e.g., axion insulator, topological insulator and some of Weyl semimetal) are new states of quantum matter. Anomalous Hall effect can occur in CAM, the anomalous Hall effect is closely related to the topological magneto-electric effect, i.e., when an electric field is applied to CAM, not only the electric field is induced, but also the magnetic field, vice versa. According to those properties, we design an electric cloak with quantized CAM and conductor, and a magnetic cloak with quantized CAM and superconductor. Simulation and calculation results show that the electric cloak can cloak applied electric field and induce magnetic field, and the magnetic cloak can cloak applied magnetic field and induce electric field. When applied electric field is generated by a point charge, the monopole can be obtained.

Demonstration of the temporal illusion and mosaic

We introduce and experimentally demonstrate a flexible temporal illusion at telecommunication data rate in optical fiber communication system. The temporal illusion cannot only transform an event to another event as expected, but also mask the event with high-level signal, providing a novel method to conceal the confidential information. We successfully transform the output temporal waveforms of a return-to-zero (RZ), dark RZ and nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) event into that of any above modulation format event and high-level signal at different illusion bits and mosaic bits at a data rate of 5 Gb/s, respectively. Our works offer us new perspectives on illusion optics for falsifying event rather than object, which has potential applications in secure communication, data encryption and other military applications.

Integrated 2D-Graded Index Plasmonic Lens on a Silicon Waveguide for Operation in the Near Infrared Domain

In this article we address the nanoscale engineering of the effective index of silicon on insulator waveguides by using plasmonic metasurface resonances to realize a graded index lens. We report the design, implementation, and experimental demonstration of this plasmonic metasurface-based graded index lens integrated on a silicon waveguide for operation in the near-infrared domain. The 2D-graded index lens consists of an array of gold cut wires fabricated on the top of a silicon waveguide. These gold cut wires modify locally the effective index of the silicon waveguide and allow the realization of this gradient lens. The reported solution represents a promising alternative to the bulky or multilayered metamaterials approach in the near IR domain. This enabling technology may have found its place in silicon photonic applications by exploiting the plasmonic resonances to control the light at nanoscale.

Design and demonstration of an underwater acoustic carpet cloak

The carpet cloak, which is designed to hide the objects placed on a reflecting surface, has become a topic of considerable interest. Inspired by those theoretical works, the experimental realization of acoustic carpet cloak in air host has been reported. However, due to the difficulty in obtaining the unit cell in reality, the underwater carpet cloak still remains in simulation thus far. Here, we design and fabricate a realizable underwater acoustic carpet cloak. By introducing a scaling factor, the structure of the carpet cloak, which is comprised of layered brass plates, is greatly simplified at the cost of some impedance match. The experimental results demonstrate a good performance of the proposed carpet cloak in a wide frequency range. Our work paves the way for future applications in the practical underwater devices.

Flexible frequency selective metamaterials for microwave applications

Metamaterials have attracted more and more research attentions recently. Metamaterials for electromagnetic applications consist of sub-wavelength structures designed to exhibit particular responses to an incident EM (electromagnetic) wave. Traditional EM (electromagnetic) metamaterial is constructed from thick and rigid structures, with the form-factor suitable for applications only in higher frequencies (above GHz) in microwave band. In this paper, we developed a thin and flexible metamaterial structure with small-scale unit cell that gives EM metamaterials far greater flexibility in numerous applications. By incorporating ferrite materials, the thickness and size of the unit cell of metamaterials have been effectively scaled down. The design, mechanism and development of flexible ferrite loaded metamaterials for microwave applications is described, with simulation as well as measurements. Experiments show that the ferrite film with permeability of 10 could reduce the resonant frequency. The thickness of the final metamaterials is only 0.3mm. This type of ferrite loaded metamaterials offers opportunities for various sub-GHz microwave applications, such as cloaks, absorbers, and frequency selective surfaces.

Inverse heat mimicking of given objects

We address a general inverse mimicking problem in heat conduction. The objects to cloak and mimic are chosen beforehand; these objects identify a specific set of space transformations. The shapes that can be mimicked are derived from the conductivity matrices. Numerical calculation confirms all of the analytical predictions. The technique provides key advantages for applications and can be extended to the field of waves.

Acoustic wave science realized by metamaterials

Artificially structured materials with unit cells at sub-wavelength scale, known as metamaterials, have been widely used to precisely control and manipulate waves thanks to their unconventional properties which cannot be found in nature. In fact, the field of acoustic metamaterials has been much developed over the past 15 years and still keeps developing. Here, we present a topical review of metamaterials in acoustic wave science. Particular attention is given to fundamental principles of acoustic metamaterials for realizing the extraordinary acoustic properties such as negative, near-zero and approaching-infinity parameters. Realization of acoustic cloaking phenomenon which is invisible from incident sound waves is also introduced by various approaches. Finally, acoustic lenses are discussed not only for sub-diffraction imaging but also for applications based on gradient index (GRIN) lens.

Broadband unidirectional behavior of electromagnetic waves based on transformation optics

High directive antennas are fundamental elements for microwave communication and information processing. Here, inspired by the method of transformation optics, we propose and demonstrate a transformation medium to control the transmission path of a point source, resulting in the unidirectional behavior of electromagnetic waves (directional emitter) without any reflectors. The network of inductor-capacitor transmission lines is designed to experimentally realize the transformation medium. Furthermore, the designed device can work in a broadband frequency range. The unidirectional-manner-based device demonstrated in this work will be an important step forward in developing a new type of directive antennas.

Ferrite Film Loaded Frequency Selective Metamaterials for Sub-GHz Applications

Electromagnetic metamaterials are constructed with sub-wavelength structures that exhibit particular electromagnetic properties under a certain frequency range. Because the form-factor of the substructures has to be comparable to the wavelength of the operating frequency, few papers have discussed the metamaterials under GHz frequency. In this paper, we developed an innovative method to reduce the resonant frequency of metamaterals. By integrating the meta-structures with ferrite materials of higher permeability, the cell size of the meta-structure can be scaled down. This paper describes the methodology, design, and development of low-profile GHz ferrite loaded metamaterials. A ferrite film with a permeability of 20 could reduce the resonant frequency of metamaterials by up to 50%. A prototype has been fabricated and the measurement data align well with the simulation results. Because of the lowered operational frequency, the proposed ferrite loaded metamaterials offer more flexibility for various sub-GHz microwave applications, such as cloaks, absorbers, and frequency selective surfaces.

Invisibility cloak with image projection capability

Investigations of invisibility cloaks have been led by rigorous theories and such cloak structures, in general, require extreme material parameters. Consequently, it is challenging to realize them, particularly in the full visible region. Due to the insensitivity of human eyes to the polarization and phase of light, cloaking a large object in the full visible region has been recently realized by a simplified theory. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a device concept where a large object can be concealed in a cloak structure and at the same time any images can be projected through it by utilizing a distinctively different approach; the cloaking via one polarization and the image projection via the other orthogonal polarization. Our device structure consists of commercially available optical components such as polarizers and mirrors, and therefore, provides a significant further step towards practical application scenarios such as transparent devices and see-through displays.

Ultratransparent Media and Transformation Optics with Shifted Spatial Dispersions

By using pure dielectric photonic crystals, we demonstrate the realization of ultratransparent media, which allow near 100% transmission of light for all incident angles and create aberration-free virtual images. The ultratransparency effect is well explained by spatially dispersive effective medium theory for photonic crystals, and verified by both simulations and proof-of-principle microwave experiments. Designed with shifted elliptical equal frequency contours, such ultratransparent media not only provide a low-loss and feasible platform for transformation optics devices at optical frequencies, but also enable new freedom for phase manipulation beyond the local medium framework.

Flexible controls of scattering clouds using coding metasurfaces

Metamaterials or metasurfaces have been designed to precisely manipulate the scattering at every angle. Here, we propose to control the probability of random scattering appearing in the desired range of angles, which is defined in this letter as scattering cloud. We present a controllable random metasurface by simply adding a random coding sequence to gradient coding sequence. It is shown that the direction and size of the scattering cloud can be arbitrarily engineered. We demonstrate the exotic behavior of the scattering cloud by making an analogy to the electron cloud in quantum mechanics. A new coding particle featuring low-interference with neighboring coding particles is designed to realize the controllable random surface, which demonstrates highly consistent results to the theoretical calculations using fast Fourier transform. The exciting phenomena and versatile behaviors of scattering clouds and their probabilities enabled by controllable random surfaces will lead to diversified applications in the fields of electromagnetic waves and acoustic waves.

Information entropy of coding metasurface

Because of their exceptional capability to tailor the effective medium parameters, metamaterials have been widely used to control electromagnetic waves, which has led to the observation of many interesting phenomena, for example, negative refraction, invisibility cloaking, and anomalous reflections and transmissions. However, the studies of metamaterials or metasurfaces are mainly limited to their physical features; currently, there is a lack of viewpoints on metamaterials and metasurfaces from the information perspective. Here we propose to measure the information of a coding metasurface using Shannon entropy. We establish an analytical connection between the coding pattern of an arbitrary coding metasurface and its far-field pattern. We introduce geometrical entropy to describe the information of the coding pattern (or coding sequence) and physical entropy to describe the information of the far-field pattern of the metasurface. The coding metasurface is demonstrated to enhance the information in transmitting messages, and the amount of enhanced information can be manipulated by designing the coding pattern with different information entropies. The proposed concepts and entropy control method will be helpful in new information systems (for example, communication, radar and imaging) that are based on the coding metasurfaces.

Manipulation of dual band ultrahigh index metamaterials in the terahertz region

By drastically decreasing the diamagnetic effect with a thin metallic structure in the unit cell and increasing the effective permittivity through strong capacitive coupling, we designed the crossed I-shaped metallic patches metamaterial with an extremely high refractive index in the dual band terahertz region. The peak index of refraction of near 80 at about 0.75 THz is predicted, along with another peak index of about 25 at 2.85 THz. Based on the careful analysis of the high index on the dependence of the electric field coupling effect, the magnetic field diamagnetic response, and the geometric parameters in the unit cell, it is found that both of the high index bands respectively correspond to different components in the metamaterial structure. To realize a higher effective refractive index for the second band as well as for the first one, we proposed the triple I-shaped metallic metamaterial structure.

Transient response of a signal through a dispersive invisibility cloak

The transient response of the invisibility cloak has long been an interesting research topic, since it is valuable to further understand the steady-state process and to design more effective cloaks. Here we investigate the transient response of a set of dispersive invisibility cloaks impinged on by a sinusoidal signal or a modulated Gaussian pulse using the finite difference time domain method. Cylindrical cloaks with linear, convex, and concave transformation functions are studied. We find that their time to reach a steady state is different and they grow significantly when the thickness of the cloak decreases. Moreover, a centrally depressed ladder-like spatial time delay distribution is observed with a modulated Gaussian pulse. We show that the central frequency of the Gaussian pulse suffers a blue-shift in the forward scattering direction in agreement with previous theoretical predictions.

Graphene metamaterial modulator for free-space thermal radiation

We proposed and demonstrated a new metamaterial architecture capable of high speed modulation of free-space space thermal infrared radiation using graphene. Our design completely eliminates channel resistance, thereby maximizing the electrostatic modulation speed, while at the same time effectively modulating infrared radiation. Experiment results verify that our device with area of 100 × 120 µm² can achieve a modulation speed as high as 2.6 GHz. We further highlight the utility of our graphene metamaterial modulator by reconstructing a fast infrared signal using an equivalent time sampling technique. The graphene metamaterial modulator demonstrated here is not only limited to the thermal infrared, but may be scaled to longer infrared and terahertz wavelengths. Our work provides a path forward for realization of frequency selective and all-electronic high speed devices for infrared applications.

A programmable metasurface with dynamic polarization, scattering and focusing control

Diverse electromagnetic (EM) responses of a programmable metasurface with a relatively large scale have been investigated, where multiple functionalities are obtained on the same surface. The unit cell in the metasurface is integrated with one PIN diode, and thus a binary coded phase is realized for a single polarization. Exploiting this anisotropic characteristic, reconfigurable polarization conversion is presented first. Then the dynamic scattering performance for two kinds of sources, i.e. a plane wave and a point source, is carefully elaborated. To tailor the scattering properties, genetic algorithm, normally based on binary coding, is coupled with the scattering pattern analysis to optimize the coding matrix. Besides, inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) technique is also introduced to expedite the optimization process of a large metasurface. Since the coding control of each unit cell allows a local and direct modulation of EM wave, various EM phenomena including anomalous reflection, diffusion, beam steering and beam forming are successfully demonstrated by both simulations and experiments. It is worthwhile to point out that a real-time switch among these functionalities is also achieved by using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). All the results suggest that the proposed programmable metasurface has great potentials for future applications.

A hybrid tunable THz metadevice using a high birefringence liquid crystal

We investigate a hybrid re-configurable three dimensional metamaterial based on liquid crystal as tuning element in order to build novel devices operating in the terahertz range. The proposed metadevice is an array of meta-atoms consisting of split ring resonators having suspended conducting cantilevers in the gap region. Adding a “third dimension” to a standard planar device plays a dual role: (i) enhance the tunability of the overall structure, exploiting the birefringence of the liquid crystal at its best, and (ii) improve the field confinement and therefore the ability of the metadevice to efficiently steer the THz signal. We describe the design, electromagnetic simulation, fabrication and experimental characterization of this new class of tunable metamaterials under an externally applied small voltage. By infiltrating tiny quantities of a nematic liquid crystal in the structure, we induce a frequency shift in the resonant response of the order of 7–8% in terms of bandwidth and about two orders of magnitude change in the signal absorption. We discuss how such a hybrid structure can be exploited for the development of a THz spatial light modulator.

Design method for broadband free-space electromagnetic cloak based on isotropic material for size reduction and enhanced invisibility

A design method is proposed that not only improves the invisibility of but also minimizes the size of a two-dimensional (2D) free-space electromagnetic cloak based on the quasi-conformal mapping (QCM) technique. The refractive index profile of the cloak based on the QCM is optimally scaled to minimize performance deterioration due to the imperfect isotropy of the cloak medium. Moreover, the method can be applied to compensate for the performance degradation due to size reduction. Based on the proposed method, as much as a 78.3% reduction in size is demonstrated. Enhancement of invisibility is evidenced by a 71% reduction in the normalized scattering cross section (SCS) at 10 GHz. Performance enhancement and miniaturization are achieved simultaneously with the extremely simple proposed method, making it one of the most practical cloaks reported thus far. Finally, experimental results over a broad bandwidth as well as for a wide range of incident angles are provided for cloaks fabricated using a 3D printer, which validate the effectiveness of the proposed method of cloak design.

New procedure to design low radar cross section near perfect isotropic and homogeneous triangular carpet cloaks

A new design procedure for near perfect triangular carpet cloaks, fabricated based on only isotropic homogeneous materials, is proposed. This procedure enables us to fabricate a cloak with simple metamaterials or even without employing metamaterials. The proposed procedure together with an invasive weed optimization algorithm is used to design carpet cloaks based on quasi-isotropic metamaterial structures, Teflon and AN-73. According to the simulation results, the proposed cloaks have good invisibility properties against radar, especially monostatic radar. The procedure is a new method to derive isotropic and homogeneous parameters from transformation optics formulas so we do not need to use complicated structures to fabricate the carpet cloaks.

Detecting Thermal Cloaks via Transient Effects

Recent research on the development of a thermal cloak has concentrated on engineering an inhomogeneous thermal conductivity and an approximate, homogeneous volumetric heat capacity. While the perfect cloak of inhomogeneous κ and inhomogeneous ρc_p is known to be exact (no signals scattering and only mean values penetrating to the cloak’s interior), the sensitivity of diffusive cloaks to defects and approximations has not been analyzed. We analytically demonstrate that these approximate cloaks are detectable. Although they work as perfect cloaks in the steady-state, their transient (time-dependent) response is imperfect and a small amount of heat is scattered. This is sufficient to determine the presence of a cloak and any heat source it contains, but the material composition hidden within the cloak is not detectable in practice. To demonstrate the feasibility of this technique, we constructed a cloak with similar approximation and directly detected its presence using these transient temperature deviations outside the cloak. Due to limitations in the range of experimentally accessible volumetric specific heats, our detection scheme should allow us to find any realizable cloak, assuming a sufficiently large temperature difference.

Inverse Doppler Effects in Broadband Acoustic Metamaterials

The Doppler effect refers to the change in frequency of a wave source as a consequence of the relative motion between the source and an observer. Veselago theoretically predicted that materials with negative refractions can induce inverse Doppler effects. With the development of metamaterials, inverse Doppler effects have been extensively investigated. However, the ideal material parameters prescribed by these metamaterial design approaches are complex and also challenging to obtain experimentally. Here, we demonstrated a method of designing and experimentally characterising arbitrary broadband acoustic metamaterials. These omni-directional, double-negative, acoustic metamaterials are constructed with 'flute-like' acoustic meta-cluster sets with seven double meta-molecules; these metamaterials also overcome the limitations of broadband negative bulk modulus and mass density to provide a region of negative refraction and inverse Doppler effects. It was also shown that inverse Doppler effects can be detected in a flute, which has been popular for thousands of years in Asia and Europe.

Facile fabrication of magnetically responsive PDMS fiber for camouflage

A new type of photonic crystal PDMS fiber which exhibits tunable structural color upon exposure to external magnetic field is described in this article. The novel magnetic field responsive fiber was prepared from embedding ethylene glycol droplets (containing Fe3O4@C nanoparticles) into PDMS. In the presence of an external magnetic field, Fe3O4@C nanoparticles which dispersed in ethylene glycol droplets formed one dimensional chain-like structures along the magnetic field. As a result, the color of the fiber changes to yellow green. By contrast, when the magnetic field was removed, the color of the fiber will disappear and display its original color. Moreover, this novel PDMS fiber has good mechanical properties and could keep its color under a fixed magnetic field no matter it was stretched or squeezed. This study is expected to have some important applications such as none-powered and functionalized fibers for camouflage.

Full-Polarization 3D Metasurface Cloak with Preserved Amplitude and Phase

A full-polarization arbitrary-shaped 3D metasurface cloak with preserved amplitude and phase in microwave frequencies is experimentally demonstrated. By taking the unique feature of metasurfaces, it is shown that the cloak can completely restore the polarization, amplitude, and phase of light for full polarization as if light was incident on a flat mirror.

Scattering engineering in continuously shaped metasurface: An approach for electromagnetic illusion

The control of electromagnetic waves scattering is critical in wireless communications and stealth technology. Discrete metasurfaces not only increase the design and fabrication complex but also cause difficulties in obtaining simultaneous electric and optical functionality. On the other hand, discontinuous phase profiles fostered by discrete systems inevitably introduce phase noises to the scattering fields. Here we propose the principle of a scattering-harness mechanism by utilizing continuous gradient phase stemming from the spin-orbit interaction via sinusoidal metallic strips. Furthermore, by adjusting the amplitude and period of the sinusoidal metallic strip, the scattering characteristics of the underneath object can be greatly changed and thus result in electromagnetic illusion. The proposal is validated by full-wave simulations and experiment characterization in microwave band. Our approach featured by continuous phase profile, polarization independent performance and facile implementation may find widespread applications in electromagnetic wave manipulation.

Dual band metamaterial perfect absorber based on artificial dielectric "molecules"

Dual band metamaterial perfect absorbers with two absorption bands are highly desirable because of their potential application areas such as detectors, transceiver system, and spectroscopic imagers. However, most of these dual band metamaterial absorbers proposed were based on resonances of metal patterns. Here, we numerically and experimentally demonstrate a dual band metamaterial perfect absorber composed of artificial dielectric "molecules" with high symmetry. The artificial dielectric "molecule" consists of four "atoms" of two different sizes corresponding to two absorption bands with near unity absorptivity. Numerical and experimental absorptivity verify that the dual-band metamaterial absorber is polarization insensitive and can operate in wide-angle incidence.

Invisibility Cloak Printed on a Photonic Chip

Invisibility cloak capable of hiding an object can be achieved by properly manipulating electromagnetic field. Such a remarkable ability has been shown in transformation and ray optics. Alternatively, it may be realistic to create a spatial cloak by means of confining electromagnetic field in three-dimensional arrayed waveguides and introducing appropriate collective curvature surrounding an object. We realize the artificial structure in borosilicate by femtosecond laser direct writing, where we prototype up to 5,000 waveguides to conceal millimeter-scale volume. We characterize the performance of the cloak by normalized cross correlation, tomography analysis and continuous three-dimensional viewing angle scan. Our results show invisibility cloak can be achieved in waveguide optics. Furthermore, directly printed invisibility cloak on a photonic chip may enable controllable study and novel applications in classical and quantum integrated photonics, such as invisualising a coupling or swapping operation with on-chip circuits of their own.

Omnidirectional transformation-optics cloak made from lenses and glenses

We present a design for an omnidirectional transformation-optics (TO) cloak comprising thin lenses and glenses (generalized thin lenses) [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A33, 962 (2016)1084-7529JOAOD610.1364/JOSAA.33.000962]. It should be possible to realize such devices in pixelated form. Our design is a piecewise nonaffine generalization of piecewise affine pixelated-TO devices [Proc. SPIE9193, 91931E (2014)PSISDG0277-786X10.1117/12.2061404; J. Opt18, 044009 (2016)]. It is intended to be a step in the direction of TO devices made entirely from lenses, which should be readily realizable on large length scales and for a broad range of wavelengths.

Dispersion engineering of metasurfaces for dual-frequency quasi-three-dimensional cloaking of microwave radiators

In this work, the design methodology and experimental investigation of compact and lightweight dispersive coatings, comprised by multiple layers of anisotropic metasurfaces, which are capable of cloaking radiators at multiple frequencies are presented. To determine the required surface electromagnetic properties for each layer, an analytical model is developed for predicting the scattering from a cylinder surrounded by multiple layers of anisotropic metasurfaces subject to plane-wave illumination at a general oblique incidence angle. Particularly, two different metasurface coating solutions with different dispersive properties are designed to provide more than 10 dB scattering width suppression at two pre-selected frequencies within a field-of-view (FOV) of ± 20° off normal incidence. Both coating designs implemented using metasurfaces are fabricated and measured, experimentally demonstrating the simultaneous suppression of mutual coupling and quasi-three-dimensional radiation blockage at the two pre-selected frequency ranges. At the same time, the functionality of the coated monopole is still well-maintained. The performance comparison further sheds light on how the optimal performance can be obtained by properly exploiting the dispersion of each metasurface layer of the coating. In addition, the cloaking effect is retained even when the distance between the radiators is significantly reduced. The concept and general design methodology presented here can be extended for applications that would benefit from cloaking multi-spectral terahertz as well as optical antennas.

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

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.

Omnidirectional optical attractor in structured gap-surface plasmon waveguide

An optical attractor based on a simple and easy to fabricate structured metal-dielectric-metal (SMDM) waveguide is proposed. The structured waveguide has a variable thickness in the vicinity of an embedded microsphere and allow for adiabatic nano-focusing of gap-surface plasmon polaritons (GSPPs). We show that the proposed system acts as an omnidirectional absorber across a broad spectral range. The geometrical optics approximation is used to provide a description of the ray trajectories in the system and identify the singularity of the deflection angle at the photon sphere. The analytical theory is validated by full-wave numerical simulations demonstrating adiabatic, deep sub-wavelength focusing of GSPPs and high local field enhancement. The proposed structured waveguide is an ideal candidate for the demonstration of reflection free omnidirectional absorption of GSPP in the optical and infrared frequency ranges.