Plasmonic metamaterial cloaking at optical frequencies

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel design for optical frequency cloaks using layered plasmonic and non-plasmonic materials to achieve effective epsilon-near-zero properties, enabling invisibility of cylindrical and spherical objects.

Contribution

It presents the first practical design of optical cloaks with layered structures that work at visible frequencies, validated by full-wave simulations.

Findings

Cylindrical and spherical cloaks successfully reduce object observability

Designs work for both magnetic and non-magnetic objects

Loss effects are analyzed and considered

Abstract

In this paper, we present the design of cylindrical and spherical electromagnetic cloaks working at visible frequencies. The cloak design is based on the employment of layered structures consisting of alternating plasmonic and non-plasmonic materials and exhibiting the collective behavior of an effective epsilon-near-zero material at optical frequencies. The design of a cylindrical cloak to hide cylindrical objects is firstly presented. Two alternative layouts are proposed and both magnetic and non-magnetic objects are considered. Then, the design of spherical cloaks is also presented. The full-wave simulations presented throughout the paper confirm the validity of the proposed setup, and show how this technique can be used to reduce the observability of cylindrical and spherical objects. The effect of the losses is also considered.