School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science

Simplified Directional
Ground-Plane Cloaks
by Christos Argyropoulos

Themos Kallos, Christos

Argyropoulos,
Yang Hao
 Outline

 Introduction to Cloaking Phenomena


Simplified Directional Ground-Plane
Cloaks
 Scattering Performance (FDTD)
 Bandwidth Performance (FDTD)

2
 Cloaking Devices
 Cloaking device: anisotropic and dispersive.
 Radially-dependent permittivity ε and permeability µ.
 The cloak is able to guide the electromagnetic waves
around an object without any disturbances and
reflections. The object placed inside the cloak
becomes practically “invisible” to an exterior viewer.

Schurig et al., Opt. Expr., 2006. 3

 Ground-Plane Cloaking
[1]
• Cylindrical Cloak: Extreme bending
 Extreme materials

• Leading to dispersive & narrowband

response

• Ground-plane cloak has moderate

material parameters, can be made
all-dielectric
[2]
[1] Argyropoulos et al.,
TAP 2009
[2] Li et al., PRL 2008

4
 Experimental Results
[1] [2]

• Microwave (2
cm)

• Infrared (1.5
μm)
[1] Liu et al., Science 2009
• Broadband
[2] Valentine et al., Nat. Mat. 2009
5
Ground-Plane Cloak Challenges
 Simpler design?


Free-Space operation?

 Good Bandwidth
Performance?
6
Ground-Plane Cloak
Mirage Effect

30 (a)

# of cells [%]
20
10
0
60 80 100 120
Angle [Degrees]

(c) Permitivity Map

0.5 4
y [µm]

2
0
­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 0 0.5 1
x [ µm]

7
 0.5 1.2

# of cel

y [ µ
10
0 0 1
Cloak Design 60 80 100
Angle [Degrees]
120 ­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 0
µ
x [ m]
0.5 1

(c) Permitivity Map  g xx g xy 
(d) Approximate Permittivity Map
g ij    4
 g yx g yy 
4

y [ µm]
0.5
y [ µm]

0.5
2 2
0 0
­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 0 0.5 1 ­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
µ
x [ m] x [µm]

(b)  ij 1
Anisotropy Map
 1
0.5  ref det gij
y [ µm]

1.2

0 1
120 ­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 0 0.5 1
µ
x [ m]
30 (a) (b)t  g g xy g yx
Anisotropy Map
ij
# of cells [%]

ij cos ij 
20 (d) Approximate Permittivity Map det( gij ) g xx g yy
0.5
y [ µm]
1.2
4 10 4
µm]

0.5
0 0 1
y [

2 60 80 100 120 2 ­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 0 0.5 1

0 µ
x [ m]
­1.5 ­1 Angle [Degrees]
­0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
µ
x [ m]
Li and Pendry, PRL 2008 8
(c) Permitivity Map (d) Approximate Permittivity Map
Kallos et al., PRA 2009
All Dielectric Cloak Design
−1
  g ii g ij  
[ ] µ =
ij 1  gii

gij 
g jj 
[µ ] = [µ ]
ij
ij −1
=  1
 det( g )  g ji  
g jj  
det( g)  g ji  

 The simplification
is to make the   g ii g ij  
−1

meshes [ ] [ ]
µij = µ ij −1
=
1
 det( g ) g  
g jj  
  ji
orthogonal, then gij −1
and gji are going to  1  g ii 0  
=
be zero; if the  ( g ) 2  0 g jj  
 ii 
meshes have equal
1 0
sides, then gii=gjj, =  
 0 1 
then
g=gii*gjj=gii*gii;
9
NFDTD Run
• Ground
Plane
• 64x15
Non-
orthogonal
cells (cloak
only) • w/ object

• Gaussian
Pulse:
f0 = 600 THz
σt = 2.4 fs • w/ cloak
σx = 1.2 μm

10
Simplified Cloak Design
λ=750 μm (Embedded in SiO2/εr =2.25)
Original Grid
Original Grid
Original Grid 55
5
m]

0.5
µµm]

0.5 33 • 64x15 Non-Orthogonal

µm]

0.5
y [

3
y [

Blocks
y [

00 11
­1.5
0
­1.5 ­1
­1 ­0.5
­0.5 00 0.5
0.5 11 1.5
1.5 1
­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 x [µµ
0m] 0.5 1 1.5
x [µm]
x [ m]
High­Res Sampled Grid
High­Res Sampled Grid
High­Res Sampled Grid 55
5 • 80x20 Orthogonal Blocks
m]

0.5
µµm]

0.5 33
µm]

0.5 37.5 nm x 37.5 nm

y [

3
y [
y [

00 11
­1.5
0
­1.5 ­1
­1 ­0.5
­0.5 00 0.5
0.5 11 1.5
1.5 1
­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 x [ µ
0m]
x [µµ m] 0.5 1 1.5
x [ m]
Low­Res Sampled Grid
Low­Res Sampled Grid
Low­Res Sampled Grid 55
5 • 6x2 Orthogonal Blocks
m]

0.5
µµm]

0.5 33
µm]

0.5 482.5 nm x 375 nm

y [

3
y [y [

00 11
­1.5
0
­1.5 ­1
­1­0.5
­0.5 00 0.5
0.5 11 1.5
1.5 1
­1.5 ­1­0.5 x [ µ
0
µ m] 0.5 1 1.5
x [ m]
x [µm]
High­Res Sampled Grid (Free Space)
High­Res Sampled Grid (Free Space)
Kallos et al., PRA 2009 22
High­Res Sampled Grid (Free Space) 11
2
]m]

0.5
[µm]

0.5 1.5
µ
 Simplified Cloak Design
Embedded in Air
Low­Res Sampled Grid
2
y [ µm]

0.5 1.5 • Dispersive

1 min(ε)=0.8
0
­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
µ
x [ m]

High­Res Sampled Grid (Free Space)
2 • Ignore dispersive regions
y [ µm]

0.5 1.5
1
0
­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
µ
x [ m]

Low­Res Sampled Grid (Free Space)
2 • 4x2 Orthogonal Blocks
y [ µm]

0.5 1.5
1
0
­1.5 ­1 ­0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
x [ µm]

Kallos et al., PRA 2009 12

Simplified Cloaks
Comparisons
Approximations:

• Ignore anisotropy

• Ignore dispersive
values

• Simplified blocks
• Simplified cloaks
(8x2, 4x2) work very
well in free space
without dispersive
values
Kallos et al., PRA 2009 13
 1
Quantitative Performance

Energy [a.u.]
Ground Plane
No Cloak
1
Optical Bandwidth 0.5 80x20 Cloak

Energy [a.u.]
Ground Plane
80x20 Cloak (dispersive)
No Cloak
4x2 Cloak
0.5 0 80x20 Cloak
0 30 80x20 Cloak (dispersive)
60 90
1 1
(a)Angle [deg]

Spectral Amplitude [a.u.]
4x2 Cloak (c)

Energy [a.u.]
0
0 30 60 1 90 1
Spectral Amplitude [a.u.] Angle [deg]
0.5 0.5
1
187 nm   ~ x / 12 0.5 0.5
0 0
30 60 90 0 30 60 0 90
0.5 0.5 0 0
Angle [deg] Angle [deg]
Spectral Amplitude [a.u.]
• High-res cloaks are slightly 400 600 800 1400 1600 1800
better 1 Frequency [THz] 1Frequency [THz]
0 (b) 0 (d)
400 600 800 1400 1600 1800
• Visible spectrum is Frequency [THz]
0.5 Frequency [THz]0.5
restored

• Dispersive sections do not 0 0

400 600 800 1400 1600 1800
significantly affect spectrum Frequency [THz] Frequency [THz]

• Differences appear after

1600 THz Kallos et al., PRA 2009 14
Quantitative Performance Ground Plane
No Cloak
80x20 Cloak
Optical Bandwidth 80x20 Cloak (dispersive)
4x2 Cloak

• Tradeoff between
bandwidth and design
complexity

• Bandwidth deteriorates
slightly with increased
frequency (electrically
larger objects)

• Critical at nano-scale
optical devices

15
 Free-Space Directional Cloak
Single angle of operation (a)

(b)

Rotationally symmetric device - Top view

Kallos et al., PRA 2009 16

Free-Space Directional Cloak
Energy Distribution Spectral Distribution

(b)

17
Free-Space Directional Cloak
Practical Application: reduce coupling between GPS
antenna and VHF whip antenna
No Cloak 4x4 Directional
Cloak

A B B A
Relative Permittivity values
D D
C C A = 1.20
PE B = 1.32
C C
D C D C = 1.07
A B B A D = 1.47

18
Conclusions
 Ground-plane cloaks have less demanding non-
dispersive material parameters.

 Simplified designs work for electrically small

elements (dx~λ).

 Bandwidth vs. Complexity trade-off.


The energy transmitted behind the directional
free-space cloak is improved by one order of
magnitude compared to a non-cloaked object.


The proposed device has broadband
performance and preserves the frequency
spectrum over the most of the visible range. 19
 Thank you!

christos.a@elec.qmul.ac.uk

themos.kallos@elec.qmul.ac

20