Parallel-plate metamaterials for cloaking strtuctures

review summary
AURELIO MARTINEZ1, *

In this work, I will compare the work by Mario G. Silveirinha, Andrea Alu, And Nader Engheta, in Parallel-plate
materials for cloaking structures to the topics study in the 462-fall class of 2021. Meta is from the Greek, and it means
“go beyond” and the Latin word Materia meaning “matter” or “material” Metamaterial. Metamaterials are any material
that has been purposely engineered to have a special property that is not found naturally in other materials. In this specific
work we analyze the use of metamaterials use in cloaking structures and is relationship to K-vectors, Maxwell’s equations,
Gratings, Polarization, and Waveguides.

strategies to reduce the specific scattering of a given object

1. Introduction [4]. Even though the most popular ENG material structure is
the wire medium, the research group chose a design of covers
Nowadays we are all familiar with the materials and made of metallic plates. Choosing in this way due to the
tools that we use to control light waves. For example, simplicity of the parallel-plate medium, which consists of a
magnifying glasses as well as eyeglasses who many people set of waveguides below cutoff [2].
use in a daily basis. One of the first descriptions of Negative-
index materials was made by Victor Veselago in 1967[1]. In The review of the paper is organized as follows. In
his research he proved that such materials could transmit section II it is introduce the geometry of the parallel-plate
light. He also showed that the phase velocity could be made medium, covering how and under which conditions such a
as anti-parallel to the direction of the poynting vector [1]. The structure can be homogenized, they do this by stablishing
paper in which I based my review mentions that the peculiar simple design rules emulating the response of an ideal ENG
plasmonic resonances responsible for the anomalous slab. Section III they review the problem of scattering
properties present in ENG materials may be tailored to reduction and find under which conditions it is possible to
synthesize a dielectric crystal that behaves effectively as a significantly reduce the total scattering of a given object by
negative-refraction medium [2]. The main objective of the designing a proper ENG cover cloak. Then section IV analyzes
paper was to assess the performance of a specific numerically the performance of some design examples,
configuration for synthesizing ENG materials in a setup of showing in this way how properly design metamaterial
practical interest, and at the same time to validate the results covers may be effective in reducing the cylinder’s total
of using an artificially made metamaterial [3]. By following scattering cross section [2].
the ideas described in [3] for transparency and cloaking they
research group decided to take it a based point to investigate
whether an ENG metamaterial cover consisting of conducting 2. CHARACTERIZATION OF PARALLEL-PLATE NEGATIVE
implants at microwave frequencies can be used as a cloak to MATERIALS.
reduce the specific scattering of a given obstacle at a given
About 40 years ago it was proved by Rotman [5] that
microwave frequency range of interest [2]. In [3] the
a set of parallel plate waveguides below cutoff can simulate
research team demonstrated that a proper design of an ideal
an electric plasma at microwave frequencies. In class we
ENG cover near its plasma resonance may induce
learned that for a metallic waveguides we could calculate the
transparency. However, in their work it ENG materials were
cutoff condition for a parallel-plate. The cutoff condition is
assumed to be readily available, which is the case in the IR
defined as follows in formula1
and visible range of frequencies, but not at a lower
frequencies [2]. Thus such phenomenon needed to be teste to
see if the phenomenon may occur using a metamaterial that
simulated the behavior of an ENG material. It is also
important to notice that other groups have used alternative
 [7]. This was done by realizing that an object with
permittivity greater than E0 induces a local electric
displacement. This displacement current is induced by a
plasmonic object with permittivity less than E0 [2].
During the process of modeling of the material cover
Formula1. it was conclude that the effective permittivity of the material
Usually when analyzed, the parallel-plate medium cover may be evaluated extending the result that was given
consists of a set of parallel metallic waveguides as shown by by Eq 3.
Fig. 1. As we can see the distance between tween the plates
are a, and the space between the plates is filled with a
nonmagnetic dielectric with relative permittivity.


To the case in which the plates are not parallel with each
other, but instead are all position along the radial direction
[2]. In class we learned that in a parallel-plate metallic
waveguide, frequencies above the cutoff frequency may
propagate within a waveguide, but the frequencies below the
cutoff will not propagate. Also that lower frequencies have
larger wavelengths represented by . Large
wavelengths have a harder time fitting between the plates of
a waveguide.
In summary having a previous understanding about
waveguides helped me to understand the way metamaterials
work. It is because waveguides and metamaterials are so
close related that the worked review was easier to
understand. In this work was demonstrated how the
homogenization and design of artificial materials that consist
In this work it is assumed that the polarization of the of a set of metallic waveguides below cutoff [2]. It was also
fields is such that the electric field is always parallel tot eh shown that even in simple propagation scenarios a dominant
metallic plates. As we know, in each waveguide section the mode description of the artificial medium is insufficient to
electric field can be decompose into electromagnetic modes accurately describe the electrodynamics of the structure.
with propagation constants [6]: This because of higher-order diffraction modes exited at the
entrance and or exit interface of the material [2]. It was also
shown that the physical interface of the structure is not
coincident with the virtual interface of the homogenized
model. Therefore it is necessary to introduce dielectric gaps
near such interfaces to accurately design ENG materials in
In class also learned that TE modes propagate in this configuration [2].
rectangular metallic waveguides as illustrated by image 1. References
1. Slyusar, V.I. (October 6–9, 2009). Metamaterials on antenna
solutions (PDF). 7th International Conference on Antenna
Theory and Techniques ICATT’09. Lviv, Ukraine. pp. 19–24.

2. Mário G. Silveirinha,1,2 Andrea Alù,1 and Nader Engheta1,* 1

Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA 2 Department
of Electrical Engineering-Instituto de Telecomunicações, University
of Coimbra, Portugal. Parallel-plate metamaterials for cloaking
structures.
3. A. Alù, and N. Engheta, Phys. Rev. E 72, 016623 2005.
4. J. B. Pendry, D. Schurig, and D. R. Smith, Science 312, 1780 2006.
5. W. Rotman, IRE Trans. Antennas Propag. 10, 82 1962
6. Robert E. Collin, Field Theory of Guided Waves, 2nd ed. IEEE Press, New
3. REDUCTION OF SCATERING CROSS SECTION York, 1991, pp. 664–671.
7. A. Alù, and N. Engheta, Phys. Rev. E 72, 016623 2005
The research team numerically proved that, under
suitable conditions it is possible to radically reduce the
scattering cross section of spherical and cylindrical objects