Radio-transparent dipole antenna based on a metasurface cloak.

Antenna technology is at the basis of ubiquitous wireless communication systems and sensors. Radiation is typically sustained by conduction currents flowing around resonant metallic objects that are optimized to enhance efficiency and bandwidth. However, resonant conductors are prone to large scattering of impinging waves, leading to challenges in crowded antenna environments due to blockage and distortion. Metasurface cloaks have been explored in the quest of addressing this challenge by reducing antenna scattering. However, metasurface-based designs have so far shown limited performance in terms of bandwidth, footprint and overall scattering reduction. Here we introduce a different route towards radio-transparent antennas, in which the cloak itself acts as the radiating element, drastically reducing the overall footprint while enhancing scattering suppression and bandwidth, without sacrificing other relevant radiation metrics compared to conventional antennas. This technique opens opportunities for cloaking technology, with promising features for crowded wireless communication platforms and noninvasive sensing.

Breaking temporal symmetries for emission and absorption.

Time-reversal symmetries impose stringent constraints on emission and absorption. Antennas, from radiofrequencies to optics, are bound to transmit and receive signals equally well from the same direction, making a directive antenna prone to receive echoes and reflections. Similarly, in thermodynamics Kirchhoff's law dictates that the absorptivity and emissivity are bound to be equal in reciprocal systems at equilibrium, e(ω, θ)=a(ω, θ), with important consequences for thermal management and energy applications. This bound requires that a good absorber emits a portion of the absorbed energy back to the source, limiting its overall efficiency. Recent works have shown that weak time modulation or mechanical motion in suitably designed structures may largely break reciprocity and time-reversal symmetry. Here we show theoretically and experimentally that a spatiotemporally modulated device can be designed to have drastically different emission and absorption properties. The proposed concept may provide significant advances for compact and efficient radiofrequency communication systems, as well as for energy harvesting and thermal management when translated to infrared frequencies.

Invisibility and cloaking based on scattering cancellation.

Advances in material synthesis and in metamaterial technology offer new venues to tailor the electromagnetic properties of devices, which may go beyond conventional limits in a variety of fields and applications. Invisibility and cloaking are perhaps one of the most thought-provoking possibilities offered by these new classes of advanced materials. Here, recently proposed solutions for invisibility and cloaking using metamaterials, metasurfaces, graphene and/or plasmonic materials in different spectral ranges are reviewed and highlighted. The focus is primarily on scattering-cancellation approaches, describing material challenges, venues and opportunities for the plasmonic and the mantle cloaking techniques, applied to various frequency windows and devices. Analogies, potentials and relevant opportunities of these concepts are discussed, their potential realization and the underlying technology required to verify these phenomena are reviewed with an emphasis on the material aspects involved. Finally, these solutions are compared with other popular cloaking techniques.