SUSY-inspired one-dimensional transformation optics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel one-dimensional transformation optics method using supersymmetry to design optical structures with identical scattering properties, enabling the creation of indistinguishable photonic configurations and loss-avoiding material replacements.

Contribution

It presents a new SUSY-based framework for one-dimensional transformation optics, allowing for the synthesis of indistinguishable optical devices and loss mitigation strategies.

Findings

Design of dielectric arrangements mimicking high-contrast structures

Development of SUSY-based optical transformation techniques

Strategies for replacing negative-permittivity domains

Abstract

Transformation optics aims to identify artificial materials and structures with desired electromagnetic properties by means of pertinent coordinate transformations. In general, such schemes are meant to appropriately tailor the constitutive parameters of metamaterials in order to control the trajectory of light in two and three dimensions. Here we introduce a new class of one-dimensional optical transformations that exploits the mathematical framework of supersymmetry (SUSY). This systematic approach can be utilized to synthesize photonic configurations with identical reflection and transmission characteristics, down to the phase, for all incident angles, thus rendering them perfectly indistinguishable to an external observer. Along these lines, low-contrast dielectric arrangements can be designed to fully mimic the behavior of a given high-contrast structure that would have been otherwise beyond the reach of available materials and existing fabrication techniques. Similar strategies can also be adopted to replace negative-permittivity domains, thus averting unwanted optical losses.