ARTICLE

Received 24 Jul 2012 | Accepted 23 Oct 2012 | Published 20 Nov 2012 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2219

Broadband electromagnetic cloaking with smart

metamaterials
Dongheok Shin1, Yaroslav Urzhumov2, Youngjean Jung1, Gumin Kang1, Seunghwa Baek1, Minjung Choi1,
Haesung Park1, Kyoungsik Kim1 & David R. Smith2

The ability to render objects invisible with a cloak that fits all objects and sizes is a long-
standing goal for optical devices. Invisibility devices demonstrated so far typically comprise
a rigid structure wrapped around an object to which it is fitted. Here we demonstrate smart
metamaterial cloaking, wherein the metamaterial device not only transforms electromagnetic
fields to make an object invisible, but also acquires its properties automatically from its own
elastic deformation. The demonstrated device is a ground-plane microwave cloak composed
of an elastic metamaterial with a broad operational band (10–12 GHz) and nearly lossless
electromagnetic properties. The metamaterial is uniform, or perfectly periodic, in its unde-
formed state and acquires the necessary gradient-index profile, mimicking a quasi-conformal
transformation, naturally from a boundary load. This easy-to-fabricate hybrid elasto-
electromagnetic metamaterial opens the door to implementations of a variety of
transformation optics devices based on quasi-conformal maps.

1 School of Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea. 2 Center for Metamaterials and Integrated Plasmonics, Department

of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA. Correspondence and requests for materials should be
addressed to K.K. (email: [email protected]).

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O
n the basis of the invariance of Maxwell’s equations extremely difficult to achieve in general can be easily understood
under coordinate transformations, transformation optics by considering that the stress and strain distributions of a loaded
(TO) and optical conformal mapping have provided new structure in mechanical equilibrium are solutions of rather
methods to control electromagnetic fields and wave propaga- complicated equations. Although the strain profiles are uniquely
tion1,2. Amongst the celebrated applications of these emerging determined by the boundary conditions, obtaining the desired
design approaches is cloaking: making objects of various shapes strain distribution throughout the entire volume of the device is
invisible by implementing coordinate transformations from the very challenging as, in general, this requires knowing the solution
physical to a virtual space, in which the concealed object appears to the corresponding inverse problem. An implementation of a
to have zero volume3–5. The so-called omnidirectional cloaks given strain profile for a given boundary deformation would
‘compress’ an object to a point, rendering it invisible from any require a custom distribution of elastic properties in the entire
direction. The required transformations, however, lead to volume of the device. As difficult as it is to construct such a
material requirements that are very difficult to achieve in graded distribution of elastic properties, this resulting distribution
physical media, such as values of permittivity and/or of mechanical properties does not solve the smart TO problem;
permeability that are close to zero or very large. Owing to the such a distribution would, in general, depend on the type of
difficulty of constructing metamaterials with such extreme boundary deformation, meaning, the device would only operate
properties, only a few experimental demonstrations of subject to one specific boundary load.
omnidirectional cloaks exist so far6,7. Here we propose an elegant practical solution that does not
On the other hand, the so-called ‘carpet’ or ground-plane cloaks only create the graded-index distribution required for a TO
conceptually compress an object to a sheet of infinitesimal device, but also does it for a virtually arbitrary deformation of the
thickness. The reduced dimensionality of the compression trans- boundary—all with a single ‘smart’ metamaterial. This idea can be
formation allows one to select transformations whose implementa- quickly grasped from Fig. 1a,b, where smart ground-plane
tions require only modest ranges of permittivity, permeability and
refractive index8. Such devices have been demonstrated to have a
large operational bandwidth, the benefit originating from the
reduced range of required material properties9–16. a b
One of the most notoriously difficult properties to achieve
without significant dispersion is magnetic permeability. Devices
have been proposed for two-dimensional (2D) wave propagation
of transverse magnetic waves that use special coordinate
transformations combined with eikonal-limit approximations
(that is, neglecting the impedance gradient) that allow elimination
of the out-of-plane magnetic response, and thus remove the need
for any magnetic response17. Such approaches are not applicable
to transverse electric (TE) wave devices, as TO recipes typically c d
require in-plane magnetic response that cannot be eliminated in
the eikonal limit. Fortunately, a special class of transfor-
mations exists, known as quasi-conformal maps (QCMs), which A a A′ a
minimize or even eliminate deviations of in-plane magnetic
permeability from unity. This is achieved by minimizing the
 
degree of anisotropy in the metric tensor of the transformation. d
A ground-plane cloak is one of the TE-polarization TO devices d
that can be constructed entirely from dielectric materials as long
as a quasi-conformal transformation for a given boundary shape (X1, X2) (x ′1,x ′2)
can be found.
e f g
Because of their ability to realize a much broader range of
constitutive properties with considerable control, artificially
structured metamaterials have been preferentially used to
implement the complex gradient permittivity and permeability
distributions required by cloaks and other TO media. In all
previously proposed cloaking schemes, the spatial distribution of y
constitutive parameters is derived assuming interior and exterior PR = 0.3 PR = –0.99 PR = –10
x
J = 0.61 J = 0.38 J = 0.27
cloak boundaries of fixed and known shapes to be hidden. Any
deviation in the shape of the hidden object requires a complete Figure 1 | Smart cloaking in accordance with the elastic deformation of
redesign of the cloak, and thus a redesign of the metamaterial the cloak boundary. (a,b) Schematics of a smart metamaterial cloaking,
implementation. In addition, the performance of a TO cloak also which adaptively performs cloaking while we elastically deform the cloak
degrades with deformations of its exterior boundary, which is boundary. Arrows indicate the propagation behaviour of incident and
exposed to an ambient medium, typically air. Practically reflected beams through cloak, which resembles reflection from a flat
unavoidable mechanical loads at the exterior boundary caused, reflector. (c,d) The coordinate transformation between the coordinates
for example, by aerodynamic pressure, can deform conventional before (X1, X2) and after (x01, x02) the elastic deformation. Frame is
metamaterial cloaks beyond the tolerance of their unit cells18,19. It incompressible dielectric materials and empty spaces indicate air.
is therefore important to find recipes for self-compensating, or Deformation squeezes unit cell air volume (A to A0 ) and makes angles of
‘smart’, TO scenarios. torsion (a and b). (e–g) Higher negative Poisson’s ratio (PR) minimizes
In a smart TO device, the boundary deformation should create anisotropy of unit cell deformation. When we upwardly compress a square
a distribution of unit cell deformations that leads to a new (dashed line) into a half size in y direction, the deformed shape (solid line)
distribution of electromagnetic properties that still implements a and Jacobian (J) are calculated if PRs are (e) 0.3, (f)  0.99 and (g)  10,
desired coordinate transformation. That such a behaviour is respectively.

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NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2219 ARTICLE

cloaking is demonstrated in a wide range of deformations of the conformal (quasi-conformal) rather than general coordinate
cloak boundary. This paper provides the first experimental transformations.
demonstration of a self-adjustable elastic metamaterial for
broadband electromagnetic cloaking composed of two triangular Design of auxetic smart metamaterials. Now, we find a class of
regions with a silicone rubber tube array. In the undeformed electromagnetic metamaterials for TE-polarization problems
initial state the tube array is perfectly periodic, with uniform whose dielectric constant changes as prescribed by the TOs rule
electromagnetic properties homogenized over each unit cell. Both of equation (2) as a function of elastic strain. For an elastic
materials involved—silicone rubber and air—are virtually lossless deformation, which transforms from (X1, X2) to ðx10 ; x20 Þ in
and dispersion-free at microwave frequencies, and the unit cells Fig. 1c,d, the deformation gradient tensor (Fij) is defined as
are electromagnetically non-resonant, which allows broadband Fij ¼ @xi0 /@Xj in solid mechanics and the Jacobian of the defor-
operation of the demonstrated device. The uniformity of the array mation gradient tensor (J ¼ det(F)) is a measure of the volumetric
in its initial state and the simplicity of the identical metamaterial change produced by the elastic deformation, such that dA0 /
elements enable low-cost mass fabrication of large-area devices. dA ¼ det(F) ¼ J (ref. 20). Smart cloaking requires both sufficient
Because of its general ability to mimic QCMs, this hybrid elasto- effective permittivity change (De) and quasi-conformality in
electromagnetic smart metamaterial should have applications in accordance with the deformation of the cloak, whereas m is unity.
various TO devices not limited to cloaks, as long as they can be The required permittivity change can be realized by use of 2D
implemented with QCMs. electromagnetic metamaterials with eeff ¼ eref ¼ edfd þ eafa ¼
ea þ (ed  ea)fd, composed of a dielectric material (ed) and air or
Results free space (eaE1) with initial volumetric fractions fd and fa
Quasi-conformal transformations with dielectric metamater- ( ¼ 1  fd), respectively. Next, we consider what happens to this
ials. To explain the operation principle of the smart metamaterial effective permittivity after an elastic deformation that does not
cloak, we begin by reviewing general TO theory for TE-polar- preserve the volume of the metamaterial elements. Such a
ization devices whose operation is limited to in-plane propaga- transformation necessitates the use of compressible materials with
tion. An arbitrary 2D coordinate transformation corresponds to Poisson’s Ratio (PR) far less than 0.5.
an anisotropic transformation of the in-plane tensor of magnetic If the dielectric material part is incompressible, after an elastic
permeability (m)1: deformation, the volumetric fractions ðfd0 ; fa0 Þ and the effective
permittivity of the 2D crystal structure become fd0 ¼ fd A/A0 ¼
m0 ¼ GmGT / j G j ð1Þ fd /J; fa0 ð ¼ 1  fd0 Þ and e0eff ¼ ed fd0 þ ea fa0 ¼ ea þ ðed  ea Þfd0 , where
A0 is the area of a deformed infinitesimal element with initial
area A. The ratio of effective permittivity after and before the
where Gij ¼ @xi0 /@xj is the Jacobian matrix of the transformation, deformation is e0eff /eref ¼ fea þ ðed  ea Þfd /Jg/fea þ ðed  ea Þfd g.
|G| is its determinant and m is the permeability tensor in the An elastic and electromagnetic metamaterial makes it possible
virtual frame. In the case of cloaks, the relative permeability and to perform smart cloaking by this accordingly changing
permittivity are both unity, m ¼ e ¼ 1, so that in the virtual space, permittivity distribution under the change of the cloak boundary.
the cloak mimics electromagnetic properties of free space. The We observe that in the limit of high dielectric constant of
magnetic permeability of a TO cloak is therefore simply the elastic matrix, that is, ed4 4ea, the effective permittivity
m0 ¼ GGT/|G|. ratio becomes approximately e0eff /eref E 1/JpA/A0 . The effective
The only situation where a non-trivial (different from identity) permittivity varies in proportion to the inverse of the area
transformation does not make m0 anisotropic is the case of a deformation factor (A0 /A). Note that this equation matches
conformal transformation. A conformal transformation derives precisely to the TO rule of equation (2), and it does so regardless
its name from the fact that it conforms to the angle preservation of the type of transformation used.
requirement. A conformal transformation thus preserves the sum Now, to ensure ‘smart’ behaviour we need to solve the coupled
of the two angles, a and b, of an infinitesimal rectangle (grid elastostatics problem, that is, we must ensure that the mechanical
element), as shown in Fig. 1c,d. As any transformation can be equilibrium of a deformed metamaterial grid represents a desired
seen locally as a combination of a rotation and simultaneous QCM. As described above, this behaviour is needed to maintain a
stretching in two orthogonal directions, the conformal unity permeability in equation (1). One can easily see that an
requirement thus corresponds to isotropic stretching of a grid elastic deformation of a homogeneous medium that possesses a
element. A conformal transformation therefore has a Jacobian negative PR with very large absolute value creates a deformed grid
matrix whose two local eigenvalues are equal to each in precise agreement with the conformal transformation
other, so that m0 ¼ GGT/|G| ¼ 1 at each point in the physical requirement. To illustrate this, we compress a square (dashed
space. Thus, by restricting the general coordinate transformations line) of different PRs of 0.3,  0.99 and  10, choosing a factor of
to the subset based on conformal maps, one can come up with 2 compression in y direction (materials with negative PR are
implementations of TE-polarization devices not requiring a non- known as auxetics). Elastic deformations (solid line) and Jacobian
trivial magnetic permeability. values (J) are calculated using the solid mechanics module of
On the other hand, the transformation rule for the dielectric a commercial finite-element software package (COMSOL;
constant, ezz, is very simple: Fig. 1e–g). As we lower the PR, the deformed grid starts to
e0 ¼ e/ j G j ð2Þ resemble a conformal transformation, and at sufficiently low
(negative) values of PR, for instance,  10, it becomes quasi-
conformal to high accuracy. Therefore, we can have both
The transformation rule equation (2) holds for any general ingredients to achieve smart cloaking in a single elasto-
coordinate transformation, which does not have to be conformal electromagnetic metamaterial; the deformed grid closely resem-
or quasi-conformal. However, if the transformation was not bles a quasi-conformal transformation, and the dielectric constant
conformal, magnetic permeability would also transform in a non- transformation rule matches the one prescribed by TO.
trivial fashion as equation (1) and become anisotropic. To To theoretically validate the smart metamaterial cloaking
eliminate the performance limitations arising from the use of concept, we carried out full-wave electromagnetic finite-element
non-unity permeability, we thus want to use conformal or close to simulations of an incident Gaussian beam, monochromatic with

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frequency in the microwave X-band (10 GHz) propagating at an scattered beam appears as a result of the bump on the reflector.
angle of 451. In this work, the smart cloaking behaviour is With PR ¼  0.99, the angle change a þ b is substantially lower;
specifically demonstrated with the reflecting surface of the hidden however, the reflected beam still has a noticeable power gap
object parameterized as y ¼ hcos2((x  200)p/125); units in (Fig. 2c,g). When the deformed material is an auxetic material
millimetres, with h varying between experiments. possessing a negative PR with a large absolute value of  10, we
Figure 2a shows a simulation of a wave propagating through a observe a nearly conformal map such that the angle change a þ b
material with ed ¼ 50, ea ¼ 1 and fd ¼ 0.5, and reflected by a flat is close to zero (Fig. 2h). As a result of a very close match between
reflector. This can be seen as the limiting case of a hidden object the transformed permittivity map and the one prescribed by the
of zero height. Then, we increase the height of the object, h, to carpet cloak design, the power gap (an indication of the bump on
10 mm and carry out solid mechanics simulations assuming the reflector) is no longer present (Fig. 2d) and the reflected beam
several different, and progressively lower, PR: 0.3,  0.99 and is restored as if the wave propagates through a homogenous
 10, in Fig. 2b–d, respectively. To test the agreement with medium and is reflected by a perfectly flat ground plane.
conformal requirement, we consider a 2D infinitesimal An arbitrary mechanical deformation of a bounded piece of an
rectangular material element with dimensions dx  dy, which auxetic material with PRo o  1 is given by a certain conformal
takes the form of a parallelogram after an elastic defor- transformation. Therefore, auxetic materials provide a smart way
mation (Fig. 2e). We calculate the changes of the angle between to deliver angle-preserving coordinate transformations needed for
lines AC and AB within the dashed line rectangle after the quasi-conformal TO. The theoretical results shown in Figs 1–2
deformation; clearly demonstrate that the elastic deformation becomes
      progressively closer to an exact conformal map as the absolute
@uy . @ux @ux . @uy
a þ b ¼ tan  1 1þ þ tan  1 1þ ð3Þ value of a negative PR increases. Auxetic materials with negative
@x @x @y @y
PR between  1 and 0 have been known for a long time21, as this
which is supposed to be zero for a precisely conformal mapping range can be implemented in media with all-positive bulk and
(Fig. 2f–h)20. If we use a typical material with positive PR of 0.3, the shear moduli. The regime with PRo  1 requires negative elastic
mapping condition is not exactly conformal and the bump is not shear modulus; the possibility of auxetic materials with negative
completely hidden. Figure 2b,f show that a strongly scattered PR (0 to  14) and negative shear modulus have been reported
secondary beam is produced and a power gap from the primary recently22–24.

a b c d
200 E-field
1 (V m–1)

100
0
y
x –1
0 100 200 300 400 PR = 0.3 PR = −0.99 PR = −10

 d
e c f + g h
8 (deg)
b 4
C D a  0
A B uy (x,y) –4
–8
y ux (x,y)
x

i j k l
E-field
1 (V m–1)

–1
h = 8 mm h = 10 mm h = 15 mm

m n  o p
J 3
2 2.5
2
1.5
1.5
h 1 1
0.5
0.15

Figure 2 | Theoretical demonstrations of smart metamaterial cloaking. (a) Calculated E-field pattern when a Gaussian beam is launched at 451 towards a
flat reflecting plane from the left. (b–d) With auxetic smart metamaterial cloak, calculated E-field patterns when the bottom cloak (red dashed box)
boundary is upwardly deformed by 10 mm if (b) PR ¼ 0.3, (c) PR ¼  0.99 or (d) PR ¼  10. (e) Schematic illustration of the elastic deformation of an
infinitesimal element. (f–h) The angle change value, a þ b, for the region within the dashed red rectangle in b–d after the deformation when (f) PR ¼ 0.3,
(g) PR ¼  0.99 and (h) PR ¼  10. (i) Undeformed state of non-auxetic smart cloak within the red dashed polygon. A triangle patch with 125-mm
base and 65-mm height is attached to the bottom of the rectangle. (j–l) With non-auxetic smart metamaterial cloak, calculated E-field patterns when the
cloak boundary is upwardly deformed by (j) h ¼ 8 mm, (k) h ¼ 10 mm and (l) h ¼ 15 mm, respectively. (m) Calculated Jacobian values of unit cells
(J ¼ det(Fij)) after an elastic deformation for the area in the red dashed line in i. (n–p) Permittivity distributions within the red dashed rectangle in j–l after
deformations with perturbations of (n) h ¼ 8 mm, (o) h ¼ 10 mm and (p) h ¼ 15 mm.

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NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2219 ARTICLE

Design of non-auxetic smart metamaterials. In practice, auxetic outer diameter and 10 mm lattice constant (inset of Fig. 3a). The
materials with both highly negative PR and large, positive empty air space has two regions: the inside tube region with 9 mm
dielectric constant (ed4 4ea) are not easily realizable. As ed is not inner diameter and interstitial regions between unit rubber tubes.
large enough in comparison with ea in our experimental samples, The smart carpet cloak is composed of two triangular regions
we introduce an additional structural part at the bottom (a tri- (marked as C1, C2) made of uniform tube array, serving as a
angular patch) to help achieve the extremely small value of the homogeneous medium with an effective index of 1.28 (Fig. 3a).
Jacobian needed for smart cloaking. For example, if ed ¼ 2.88, The lower triangular region (marked as C1) is elastically com-
ea ¼ 1 and fd ¼ 0.15, which is close to our experimental condi- pressed to a curved surface with maximum height of h, resulting
tions, the transformation rule of effective permittivity becomes in a spatially varying density of silicone rubber, embedded in the
e0eff /eref ¼ 0:780 þ 0:220/J. For the proper operation of this carpet empty air space (Fig. 3b). The spatial distribution of silicone
cloak, the maximum permittivity variation up to e0eff /eref  1:96 rubber causes a variation of the effective index of refraction across
(after an elastic deformation) is required, which necessitates the surface. As we appropriately achieve a smart cloaking device
JB0.19. To achieve the desired range of variation for effective out of a uniform elastic crystal structure, this self-adjustable cloak
permittivity, we attach an additional triangular patch of material facilitates easy fabrication in large area and potential applications.
with a 125-mm base and 65-mm height to the bottom of the By changing the Jacobian (J), we are able to span the required
sample (Fig. 2i), which gives us deformation Jacobian values as effective permittivity range of 1.28–2.88 (inset of Fig. 3b).
small as 0.19 (Fig. 2m). The size of the unit cell, 10 mm, is substantially less than the
In the experimental demonstration of smart cloaking, we place wavelength of microwave radiation at 10 GHz. Therefore, this
our elastic metamaterial structure on top of the bump, and create periodic structure operates in its lowest, ‘acoustic’, branch of the
an elastic deformation of the boundary, resulting in curved sur- dispersion relation, where it can be generally regarded as an
faces of height h ¼ 8 mm (Fig. 2j) and h ¼ 10 mm (Fig. 2k), effective medium or ‘metamaterial’ from the electromagnetic
respectively. In both cases of our simulations, the cloaked bumps properties point of view. We place and reversibly compress the
with different cloak boundaries produce a single specularly smart metamaterial cloak made of an initially homogeneous
reflected beam that would be produced by a perfectly flat ground medium by pushing it with a triangular bump made of nearly
plane, which implies invisibility of the bump underneath the perfect electric conductors. As explained above, the deformation
metamaterial structure. When we further deform the smart cloak in a specific range always results in some effective permittivity
with bump height h ¼ 15 mm, a strongly scattered secondary profile that mimics a quasi-conformal coordinate transformation;
beam appears, indicating the deformation limit at which the thanks to the properly chosen elastic properties of the elastic tube
metamaterial behaves as a carpet cloak (Fig. 2l). The effective array. As in the earlier ground-plane cloak experiments, the
permittivity distributions within the rectangle in dashed line after purpose of the device is to generate a reflected beam indis-
deformations of h ¼ 8, 10 and 15 mm are shown in Fig. 2n–p, tinguishable from a specular reflection from a flat, undeformed,
respectively. These results demonstrate that the smart cloak gives conducting surface (‘ground’).
the observer the impression of looking at a flat surface for a
variety of shapes and heights of the physical bump on the bottom
plane. As the bump is covered with a reflector that shields elec- Observation of smart metamaterial cloaking effect. To verify
tromagnetic fields from its interior, the volume of its interior can the predicted behaviour of smart cloaking, the device was tested
be used as an invisible cavity. by launching microwave at 8–14 GHz, incident on the reflecting
surface at an angle of 01–901, then mapping the TE field dis-
tribution inside a planar waveguide. To observe the smartness of
Fabrication of smart metamaterials. Auxetic materials with very the self-adjustable carpet cloak, we place and reversibly compress
high dielectric constant and negative PR are difficult to realize, the smart metamaterial cloak by pushing it with a metallic bump.
and we performed a more feasible experiment using a lower Then, the measurements of the electric field map profiles at
dielectric constant material. In our experiment, a silicone rubber 10 GHz with 451 incident angle were carried out over a wide
(ed) elastic crystal structure with empty air space (ea) was used, range of perturbations from h ¼ 0 mm to h ¼ 11 mm, as plotted in
where ed ¼ 2.88 and ea ¼ 1, and the initial volumetric fraction (fd) Fig. 4a–h, respectively. For the perturbations below h ¼ 2 mm
of our sample is fd ¼ 0.15 (Fig. 3a). The structure is made of a (Fig. 4a,b), the additional patch (C1 in Fig. 3a) introduces so high
square lattice array of flexible silicone rubber tube with 10 mm refractive index in the centre area, just like a convex lens, that the

a b
eff
3.0
10 mm
0.5 mm
2.4

1.8

C2 9 mm
1.2
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
J

C1
Cloaked area

Figure 3 | Experimental sample of non-auxetic smart metamaterial cloak. Photographs of the sample used in our experiment with an additional triangle
patch of 125-mm base and 65-mm height. Images of the sample (a) before and (b) after the deformation. The inset in a is a diagram of elastic crystal
structure and the inset in b is the effective permittivity curve versus Jacobian values. To prevent refraction at air-sample interface, upper part of cloak has a
right-angled triangle shape.

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E-field
a b c d 1 (V m–1)
i
0

h = 0 mm h = 2 mm h = 4 mm h = 6 mm –1

e f g h

h = 6 mm

h = 8 mm h = 9 mm h = 10 mm h = 11 mm

Figure 4 | Experimentally measured E-field mapping of the smartly cloaked perturbations and non-cloaked perturbation at 10 GHz. After we place and
compress the self-adjustable smart cloak around the perturbation or a ground, a beam incident on the smartly cloaked (a) ground (h ¼ 0 mm) and the
smartly cloaked bump with perturbations of (b) h ¼ 2 mm, (c) h ¼ 4 mm, (d) h ¼ 6 mm, (e) h ¼ 8 mm, (f) h ¼ 9 mm, (g) h ¼ 10 mm and (h) h ¼ 11 mm,
respectively. (i) Without the smart cloak, a beam incident on the perturbation of h ¼ 6 mm. The triangle in red dashed line presents the size of sample.

reflected beam focusing appears25. For a broad perturbation range 10

from h ¼ 4 mm to h ¼ 8 mm (Fig. 4c–e), the scattered beam
Cloaked
profile shows a singular beam without a power gap, that is, the
h = 11 mm
cloak performance is largely unaffected by the shape of cloak
boundary in a specific range. For the perturbations above
h ¼ 9 mm (Fig. 4f–h), the cloak performance suffers, as the 8 h = 10 mm
effective permittivity change due to the deformation is not
sufficient to cover carpet cloaking, causing a strongly scattered
secondary beam with a power gap and breakdown of the carpet h = 9 mm
cloaking. The upward deformation limit for the self-adjustable
smart cloak is ultimately restricted by the permittivity magnitude h = 8 mm
(ed) of the dielectric material. Without a cloak, as shown in Fig. 4i, 6
Intensity (a.u.)

the presence of a perturbation on the surface (h ¼ 6 mm)

produces a strongly scattered secondary beam with a power h = 6 mm
gap. The reflecting scattered wave interferes with the incident
wave and the fringe patterns, shown in the electric field map of
Fig. 4, make it confusing to evaluate the performance of cloaking h = 4 mm
4
devices. To remove the interference effects between incident and
scattered waves, we average the field map over the region of a h = 2 mm
wavelength distance to obtain the beam profiles at the reflecting
output region as shown in Fig. 5.
h = 0 mm
To confirm that the cloaking effect persists in a broadband 2
(with instantaneous bandwidth no less than 10%), the device was
tested by launching microwave between 8 and 14 GHz, incident Uncloaked
on the reflecting surface at an angle of 451, then mapping the TE h = 6 mm
field distribution inside a planar waveguide. With a smart
metamaterial cloak pushed by a metallic perturbation of height
h ¼ 6 mm at 451 incidence, the electric field profiles were 0
measured at the frequencies of 8, 11, 12 and 14 GHz, as plotted 0 50 100 150 200 250
in Fig. 6a–d, respectively. The dispersion curve of silicone rubber Position along output (mm)
bulk (see Fig. 6e) shows that the permittivity of silicone rubber is
not sensitively changing over the broadband frequency range. Figure 5 | Averaged beam profiles of the reflecting scattered waves at
Apparently, the device operates fairly well in this experimental the output plane. To remove the interference effects, averaged beam
setup in the 8–12 GHz range, especially at the 11 and 12 GHz test profiles at the output region are presented with a smart metamaterial cloak
frequencies. The observation of Gaussian beam cloaking at dependent on the perturbations of h ¼ 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 mm.
8 GHz is complicated by the dimensions of the experimental Without a cloak, a strongly scattered secondary beam appears.
setup and the diffraction limit for the Gaussian beam waist
(Fig. 6a). At the other extreme (14 GHz), the metamaterial
unit cell is not small enough relative to the wavelength to be
accurately homogenizable. This explains the poor performance microwave beams at 10 GHz, incident on the reflecting surface
observed in Fig. 6d. at angles from 01 to 901 with respect to the normal. With the
An ideal carpet (ground-plane) cloak cancels the reflection smart metamaterial cloak pushed by a metallic object of height
spectrum of an object illuminated by plane waves incident from h ¼ 6 mm, the electric field profiles at 10 GHz were measured at
any direction, leaving only the specular reflection of the ground the selected incidence angles of 01, 601 and 901 with respect to the
plane itself. To study the incidence angle dependence of our normal, as plotted in Fig. 6f–h, respectively. These results show
experimental sample, the device, installed in the same parallel that the device operates as a carpet cloak for beams incident at
plate waveguide, was tested by launching TE-polarized various angles.

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a b c d

8 GHz 11 GHz 12 GHz 14 GHz

e f g h
3 E-field
Permittivity (′, ′′)

1 (V m–1)
2
′
′′ 0
1
–1
0  = 0°  = 60°  = 90°
5 10 15
Frequency (GHz)

Figure 6 | Experimentally measured E-field mapping of smart metamaterial cloaking. Measured E-fields depending on frequency and incident angle with
a perturbation of h ¼ 6 mm. (a–d) Experimental E-field mapping at various frequencies of (a) 8 GHz, (b) 11 GHz, (c) 12 GHz and (d) 14 GHz. (e) Dispersion
curve of silicone rubber. (f–h) Experimental E-field mapping at various incidence angles of (f) 01, (g) 601 and (h) 901.

Discussion Elastic crystal fabrication. For a periodic and uniform elastic crystal, we use
These results represent an experimental demonstration of a self- injection-moulded silicone rubber tube with 10 mm outer diameter and 9 mm
inner diameter. The silicone rubber’s dielectric properties are shown in Fig. 6e. The
adjustable ‘smart’ invisibility cloaking device at microwave silicone rubber tube was cut into slices of 10 mm length, then bonded to each other
frequencies, made of an initially uniform dielectric elastic meta- using RTV adhesive.
crystal whose electromagnetic and mechanical properties are
homogenizable. The demonstrated smart cloak is nearly lossless
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Acknowledgements Additional information

K.K. thanks Dr Hong-Teuk Kim, Dr See-Hyung Lee at LG Electronics for the loan of an Competing financial interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.
equipment and SeokJae Chung, Soo-Hyun Kim at Samsung Electronics for helpful Reprints and permission information is available online at http://npg.nature.com/
contributions. This work was supported by the Low Observable Technology Research reprintsandpermissions/
Centre programme of the Defence Acquisition Program Administration and Agency for
Defense Development and the National Research Foundation of Korea grants funded by How to cite this article: Shin, D. et al. Broadband electromagnetic cloaking with smart
the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2012R1A1B3003933, 2009- metamaterials. Nat. Commun. 3:1213 doi: 10.1038/ncomms2219 (2012).

8 NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 3:1213 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2219 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications

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