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Procedia Computer Science 7 (2011) 216–220

The European Future Technologies Conference and Exhibition 2011

From Fermat’s Principle to Invisibility

Janos Perczel, Ulf Leonhardt
University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews KY16 9SS, Scotland

Abstract
We present the details of an invisibility cloak whose implementation would not require unphysical material properties, i.e.
refractive indices that are singular or less than unity. To achieve this aim, we take the Non-Euclidean Cloak developed by Ulf
Leonhardt and Thomas Tyc [1] and combine its refractive index profile with that of the Invisible Sphere [2] to raise all indices above
one. We eliminate the singularity of the Invisible Sphere by a transmutation [3].
© conference organizers and published by Elsevier B.V. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of FET11
Keywords: Invisibility; transformation optics; metamaterials

1. Introduction

In December 2010, Science listed the development of transformation optics among the top ten research insights
of the decade [4]. Research in invisibility has been one of the major inspirations of this field. After the first research
papers that began to turn invisibility from fiction into science [5,6], this area has become very active with about a 1000
papers published so far. Cloaking has been demonstrated in the laboratory (see e.g. [7,8]).
The main idea behind invisibility cloaks is to use specially engineered metamaterials with possibly anisotropic
refractive index profiles to guide light rays around objects in such a way that the rays from behind the object would
emerge from the cloak without their original direction altered (Fig. 3B). Thus it would appear as if the light ray had
passed through the object, rendering the object invisible [5].
These invisibility cloaks rely on the idea of making space for the invisible region by stretching space through
appropriate coordinate transformations (Fig. 1). The stretching of space, however, implies that in certain regions the
refractive index values will be less than unity, i.e. light rays will have to propagate faster than the speed of light,
which would make the cloak work only for a narrow range of frequencies [9]. Here we avoid this problem by placing
the refractive index profile of the Non-Euclidean Invisibility Cloak [1] in an invisible background medium of high
refractive index. The high refractive index of the background will shift the refractive index distribution of the entire
cloak upwards, bringing all combined values above unity, thereby making the implementation of the cloak physically
practicable.

E-mail addresses: jp394@st-andrews.ac.uk (J. Perczel), ulf@st-andrews.ac.uk (U. Leonhardt).

1877-0509 © conference organizers and published by Elsevier B.V. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
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Selection and peer review under responsibility of FET11 doi:10.1016/j.procs.2011.09.004
 J. Perczel, U. Leonhardt / Procedia Computer Science 7 (2011) 216–220 217

Fig. 1. Expansion of space through a coordinate transformation: the red region within the cloak is expanded into a hidden infinite lower plane, which
is accessible to light through the yellow branchcut.

2. Fundamental ideas

2.1. Expansion of Space through Coordinate Transformation

The refractive index profile required for the implementation of the cloak can be deduced with the help of transfor-
mation optics. This technique is based on the observation, that optical media appear as geometries, while geometries
appear as optical media for light [10,11]. Therefore, the task of deducing the refractive index profile for the invisibility
cloak is equivalent to producing a virtual geometry in which light avoids a designated invisible region and where the
rays leave the device without their original direction being altered.
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Fig. 2. A - Light propagation in the Invisible Sphere. B - Closed loops in Maxwell’s Fisheye profile surrounded by a mirror (the dashed lines show
the trajectories in the absence of the mirror).

We follow [1] and [9] to set up a virtual geometry for light with two connected Riemann sheets (Fig. 1). We expand
the interior of the cloak into an upper and a lower sheet which will be connected by a branchcut through which light
can pass from one region onto the other. We matched the colours in Fig. 1 to show which region maps to which.

2.2. Light propagation on the virtual sheets

We place a circular mirror on the lower sheet and equip the interior of the mirror with Maxwell’s Fisheye profile
(Fig. 2B). This combination plays the dual role of confining the light trajectories to a finite region on the lower plane and
making the rays emerge from the lower sheet in exactly the same direction they entered it from (Fig. 3A). Therefore,
the rays on the upper sheet will propagate as if the branchcut and the lower sheet were not there, making the lower
sheet undetectable. This geometry is an invisibility cloak in itself since we can hide anything on the lower sheet outside
the mirror without interfering with the light trajectories. However, since we made space for the lower sheet through
the expansion of space, when the above geometry is translated into a refractive index profile in physical space, certain
refractive index values turn out to be less than one making the device impracticable. Therefore, in order to raise all
index values above one we equip the upper sheet with the refractive index profile of the Invisible Sphere (Fig. 2A),
which is an invisible medium with high index values [2]. Since all the light rays entering the Invisible Sphere leave it
in exactly the same direction they entered it from, the entire cloaking region still remains invisible (Fig. 3B).
As the refractive index profile of the Invisible Sphere has a singularity at its geometrical centre we have to transmute
it by a suitable choice of coordinate expansion. We expand the singularity into a finite region according to the method
described in [3] and thus transmute the infinite refractive index into finite values. Through this procedure we gain an
invisible background profile for the cloak that is non-singular and that raises all the combined index values above unity.
 J. Perczel, U. Leonhardt / Procedia Computer Science 7 (2011) 216–220 219

Fig. 3. A- Light propagation in virtual space: Light entering the lower sheet through the blue branchcut explores only the region bounded by the
green mirror. B- Light propagation in physical space: light is guided around the green spindle-shaped region without its original direction altered.
Objects placed within this region are invisible.

2.3. Combining the two sheets

Finally, we reverse the coordinate transformation to combine the two virtual planes into a single sheet in physical
space. According to the principles of transformation optics this sheet will now be equipped with the required refractive
index profile for producing an invisibility cloak. As we reverse the expansion of space, we transform the infinite region
outside the mirror on the lower sheet, which is inaccessible to light, into a finite mirror-bound spindle-shaped region
in physical space (Fig. 3B). Objects placed within the spindle-shaped mirror will become invisible. After optimization
we found that all values of the permittivity and permeability tensors of the cloak lie in the range of [1, 945]. Therefore,
all refractive index values will also be greater than unity and finite, which implies that superluminal propagation has
been avoided in the entire cloak [12].
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Conclusion

In conclusion, we have obtained a modified version of the Non-Euclidean Cloak, which does not require refractive
index values that are singular or less than unity, making the implementation of the cloak physically practicable for a
broad range of frequencies of electromagnetic waves.
Our work was supported by the Royal Society and the EPSRC, UK.

References

[1] U. Leonhardt, T. Tyc, Science 323 (2009) 110–112.

[2] U. Leonhardt, T.G. Philbin, Geometry and Light: The Science of Invisibility, Mineola, Dover, 2010.
[3] J. Perczel, U. Leonhardt, J. Opt. 13 (2011) 075103.
[4] R.F. Service, A. Cho, Science 330 (2010) 1622.
[5] U. Leonhardt, Science 312 (2006) 1777–1780.
[6] J.B. Pendry, D. Schurig, D.R. Smith, Science 312 (2006) 1780–1782.
[7] D. Schurig, J.J. Mock, B.J. Justice, S.A. Cummer, J.B. Pendry, A.F. Starr, D.R. Smith, Science 314 (2006) 977–980.
[8] T. Ergin, N. Stenger, P. Brenner, J.B. Pendry, M. Wegener, Science 328 (2010) 337–339.
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[10] U. Leonhardt, T.G. Philbin, New J. Phys. 8 (2006) 247.
[11] U. Leonhardt, T.G. Philbin, Prog. Opt. 53 (2009) 69–152.
[12] J. Perczel, T. Tyc, U. Leonhardt, arXiv:1105.0164v1.