Invisible metallic mesh

A solid material possessing identical electromagnetic properties as air has yet to be found in nature. Such a medium of arbitrary shape would neither reflect nor refract light at any angle of incidence in free space. Here, we introduce nonscattering corrugated metallic wires to construct such a medi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ran, Lixin, Ye, Dexin, Lu, Ling, Joannopoulos, John, Soljacic, Marin
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105204
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7244-3682
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7184-5831
Description
Summary:A solid material possessing identical electromagnetic properties as air has yet to be found in nature. Such a medium of arbitrary shape would neither reflect nor refract light at any angle of incidence in free space. Here, we introduce nonscattering corrugated metallic wires to construct such a medium. This was accomplished by aligning the dark-state frequencies in multiple scattering channels of a single wire. Analytical solutions, full-wave simulations, and microwave measurement results on 3D printed samples show omnidirectional invisibility in any configuration. This invisible metallic mesh can improve mechanical stability, electrical conduction, and heat dissipation of a system, without disturbing the electromagnetic design. Our approach is simple, robust, and scalable to higher frequencies.