Review Paper on Metamaterials, its applications and basic

description of its cloaking ability

Nikunj Rathod, Vivek Vadi
B-tech Student, Electronics Branch, BVM Engineering College, V.V.Nagar-388120,Anand
Gujarat

Abstract: Metamaterials have been under study for several decades due to
their unique properties. In this paper we have focused on characteristics of
metamaterials, its applications, especially its cloaking ability and also
describes the recent developments in the field of electromagnetic cloaking.
Attention is also given to the recently proposed cloaking technique which is
based on networks of transmission lines along with the advancement in
metamaterials.

Keywords: Metamaterials, cloaking.

1. Introduction
Metamaterials are materials engineered to have property that is not found
in nature. Metamaterials derive their properties from their designed
structures. The concept of negative permeability and permittivity is used in
metamaterials. Metamaterials finds its applications in optical filters, medical
devices, as sensors, as superlenses, as antennas, as cloaking et al. There are
various developments which have taken place in field of metamaterials.
 2. Literature Review
2.1. Theory of Metamaterials
Metamaterials are engineered materials that are capable of characteristics not
found in naturally occurring materials. They can be fabricated with negative
refractivity, which causes an electromagnetic (EM) wave to reflect in a
direction opposite of what might be expected.They are made from
assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composits materials such as
metals or plastics.The materials are usually arranged in repeating patterns, at
scales that are smaller than the wavelengths of the phenomena they
influence. Metamaterials derive their properties not from the properties of
the base materials, but from their newly designed structures.
Their precise shape, geometry, size, orientation and arrangement gives them
their smart properties capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves: by
blocking, absorbing, enhancing, or bending waves, to achieve benefits that
go beyond what is possible with conventional materials.Appropriately
designed metamaterials can affect waves of electromagnetic
radiation or sound in a manner not observed in bulk materials.
Those that exhibit a negative index of refraction for particular wavelengths
have attracted significant research.These materials are known as negative-
index metamaterials.
 Negative-index materials were first described theoretically by Victor
Veselago in 1967.
 John Pendry was the first to identify a practical way to make a left-handed
metamaterial.
Thus metamaterials are materials having negavtive permeability and
permittivity
2.2 Applications of Metamaterials
2.2.1. Metamaterial as Antenna
Metamaterial coatings have been used to enhance the radiation and matching
properties of electrically small electric and magnetic dipole antennas. Metamaterial
step up the radiated power. The newest Metamaterial antenna radiate 95% of input
radio signal at 350 MHz. Experimental metamaterial antenna are as small as one
fifth of a wavelength. Patch antenna with metamaterial cover have increased
directivity. Flat horn antenna with flat aperture constructed of zero index
metamaterial has advantage of improved directivity. Some applications for
metamaterial antennas are wireless communication, space
communications, GPS, satellites, space vehicle navigation and airplanes.

2.2.2 Metamaterial as absorber

A metamaterial absorber is a type of metamaterial intended to efficiently
absorb electromagnetic radiation such as light. Furthermore, metamaterials are an
advance in materials science. Hence, those metamaterials that are designed to be
absorbers offer benefits over conventional absorbers such as further
miniaturization, wider adaptability, and increased effectiveness.
Intended applications for the metamaterial absorber include
emitters, photodetectors, sensors, spatial light modulators, infrared
camouflage, wireless communication, and use in solar
photovoltaics and thermophotovoltaics. A metamaterial absorber utilizes the
effective medium design of metamaterials and the loss components
of permittivity and magnetic permeability to create a material that has a high ratio
of electromagnetic radiation absorption. Loss is noted in applications of negative
refractive index (photonic metamaterials, antenna systems metamaterials) or
transformation optics (metamaterial cloaking, celestial mechanics), but is typically
undesired in these applications.
2.2.3 Metamaterial as Superlens
Superlens uses metamaterials to go beyond the diffraction limit. Ramakrishna
(2005).showed, it has resolution capabilities that go beyond ordinary microscopes.
Conventional optical materials suffer a diffraction limit because only the
propagating components are transmitted from a light source. The non-propagating
components, the evanescent waves, are not transmitted. One way to improve the
resolution is to increase the refractive index but it is limited by the availability of
high-index materials. The road to the super lens is its aptitude to significantly
enhance and recover the evanescent waves that carry information at very small
scales. No lens is yet able to completely reconstitute all the evanescent waves
emitted by an object. So the future challenge is to design a superlens which can
constitute all evanescent waves to get perfect image. Hence, the principles
governing a super lens show that it has potential for imaging a DNA molecule
and cellular protein processes, or aiding in the manufacture of even smaller
computer chips and microelectronics.
2.2.4 Metamaterials as sensor
Metamaterial opens a door for designing sensor with specified sensitivity.
Metamaterials provide tools to significantly enhance the sensitivity and resolution
of sensors. Metamaterial sensors are used in agriculture, biomedical etc. In
agriculture the sensors are based on resonant material and employ SRR to gain
better sensitivity, In bio medical wireless strain sensors are widely used, nested
SRR based strain sensors have been developed to enhance the sensitivity.

2.2.5. Metamaterials as phase compensator

Metamaterial act as a phase compensator, when wave passes through a (double

positive) DPS slab having positive phase shift while DNG slab has opposite phase
shift so when wave exit from a DNG slab the total phase difference is equal to
zero.

2.3 Cloaking ability

Metamaterials are a potential basis for a practical cloaking device.Cloaking can be
achieved by cancellation of the electric and magnetic field generated by an object
or by guiding the electromagnet wave around the object.The proof of principle was
demonstrated on October 19, 2006. No practical cloaks are publicly known to
exist.

2.3.1. Scattering cancellation technique

Scattering‐cancellation‐based cloaking, such as the plasmonic cloaking,and
mantle cloaking, focuses on nonresonant destructive interference at all
angles.Plasmonic cloaking(from radio to optical frequencies) is a scattering
cancellation technique based on a homogeneous layer with low‐ or negative‐
permittivity and/or permeability designed to produce a local polarization vector
that is in “anti‐phase” with respect to that of the object to be cloaked. Thus, a
cancellation between the scattering of the object and of a properly designed
plasmonic cover may restore the incident wavefront in the near‐ and far‐field. Just
a single homogeneous plasmonic layer significantly suppress the scattering from a
few multipolar scattering orders, allowing the cloaking of objects on the scale of
the wavelength of operation.One key advantage of the plasmonic cloaking
technique, attributed to its inherently nonresonant operation, relies on its resiliency
to manufacturing tolerances and inherent losses in practical metamaterials. The
utilization of plasmonic materials is limited by losses and by the fact that their
material properties vary as a function of frequency.
One recently suggested (practically possible) design of a scattering
cancellation cloak consists of metallic parallel-plate implants placed radially
around the cylindrical region where a dielectric object (to be made invisible) is
located.The benefits of the scattering cancellation technique are simple design and
structure and the possibility to realize invisibility or cloaking with isotropic and
homogeneous materials.

2.3.2 Coordinate transformation technique

Cloaking objects in free space with the coordinate transformation technique
necessarily requires the use of lossless anisotropic metamaterials with some
components of the effective permittivity and permeability smaller than these values
in free space. The first realization has been recently presented. The structure is a
two dimensional simplification of the general case and it operates as a cloak for
one polarization only. One of the biggest challenge is to design materials who
permittivity and permeability is same. Recently chiral cloak has been proposed and
its performance demonstrated experimentally in microwave frequency range. Also
use of nonlinear coordinate transformations are the latest theoretical possibility for
cloaking.
The benefits of this technique is simplicity of theoretical design. Also it is
independent of the cloaked objects shape or material.
Drawbacks are difficulties in the realization of materials with suitable
properties, especially when wide bandwidths and cloaking from signals are
required.
2.3.3 Transmission-line technique
This technique is based on the use of volumetric structures composed of two-
dimensional or three-dimensional transmission-line networks. In these structures,
the electromagnetic fields propagate inside transmission lines, thus leaving the
volume between these lines effectively cloaked.Even though the main principle of
cloaking with transmission-line networks is very simple, it cannot overcome the
following fundamental limitation: for perfect cloaking of an object in free space,
the wave velocity inside the transmission lines should exceed the speed of light.
This is because the network itself “slows” down the wave. The benefits of the
transmission-line technique are the simple structure, ease of manufacturing and
assembly, and wide-band operation. The most significant drawback of this
approach, especially when compared to the previously discussed techniques, is the
limitation on the size and shape of the cloaked object.

2.4 Metamaterials by passive materials

Considering the research in this field shows that by using passive materials
cloaking and invisibility is limited.The major concerns are bandwidth and
scattering reduction.

2.5 Advancement in metamaterials

1. The material capabilities at lower EM frequencies have captured the
attention of military systems designers and defense research organizations such as
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which see many
possibilities for the application of metamaterials beyond just the miniaturization of
highfrequency components, including for terahertz (THz) frequency applications
and as “cloaking” devices. By using the negative permittivity and permeability
characteristics of metamaterials, for example, an aircraft or a ground vehicle
covered in the metamaterials could be rendered invisible to an adversary’s radar
beams and detection.
 2. At “lower” microwave wavelengths, for example, Echodyne has developed a
series of metamaterial electronically scanned array (MESA) antennas and other
metamaterial-based products that are providing unique capabilities to military,
industrial, and commercial customers.
3. Kymeta Corp. has also commercialized metamaterials, into several lines of
innovative antennas and antenna modules.
4. At optical wavelengths, Metamaterial Technologies Inc. (MTI) has
developed metamaterial product lines based on altering the flow of light waves.
5. Lamda Lux films, to enhance the efficiency and output of light-emitting-
diode (LED) lighting; and Lamda Solar films, to absorb light and increase the
efficiency of solar cells.

Research on metamaterials is ongoing and is sure to lead to wide acceptance

of these novel materials in applications throughout the EM spectrum. While efforts
are being made to better understand the materials and how to efficiently
manufacture them, much research is also focused on the modeling and simulation
of the materials, with broad opportunities ahead for suppliers of software
simulation tools ready and willing to integrate accurate metamaterial models
within their simulation programs.