Weaving the invisible thread: design of an optically invisible metamaterial fibre.
We present the design of an invisible metamaterial fibre operating at optical frequencies, which could be fabricated by adapting existing fibre drawing techniques. The invisibility is realised by matching the refractive index of the metamaterial fibre with the surroundings. We present a general recipe for the fabrication of such fibres, and numerically characterise a specific example using hexagonally arranged silver nanowires in a silica background. We find that invisibility is highly sensitive to details of the metamaterial boundary, a problem that is likely to affect most invisibility and cloaking schemes.
Tuniz
Alessandro
A
Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS), School of Physics, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia. alessandro.tuniz@sydney.edu.au
Kuhlmey
Boris T
BT
Chen
Parry Y
PY
Fleming
Simon C
SC
D007834:Lasers; D008420:Manufactured Materials; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods; D053770:Nanowires; D055100:Optical Fibers; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000379:methods*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation