Absorption and Scattering for Cloaked Sensors

Dr. Andrea Alù, with graduate students Romain Fleury and Jason Soric, derive and discuss general physical bounds on the electromagnetic scattering and absorption of passive structures.

Their theory, based on passivity and power conservation, quantifies the minimum and maximum allowed scattering for an object that absorbs a given level of power. Their research shows that there is a fundamental tradeoff between absorption and overall scattering suppression for each scattering harmonic, providing a tool to quantify the performance of furtive sensors, regardless of the applied principle for scattering suppression. The paper illustrates these fundamental limitations with examples of light scattering from absorbing plasmonic nanoparticles and loaded dipole antennas, envisioning applications to the design of cloaked sensors and absorbers with maximized absorption efficiency.

Read the full paper here: Physical Bounds on absorption and scattering for cloaked sensors