Super-thin cloaks mediated by spoof surface plasmons

We demonstrated the possibility of designing super-thin electromagnetic cloaks based on spoof surface plasmon (SSP). Using a metamaterial layer, incident waves can be coupled into SSP efficiently at the air/metamaterial interface. Due to the strong surface confinement of SSP, EM waves are squeezed into and propagate in deep sub-wavelength scales. Implementation of an 8.2 GHz cloak less than 1/50 the cloaking diameter was presented using split ring resonator (SRR). Excellent cloaking effect was verified by simulations. Rather than isolating objects from the background, such cloaks can drastically enhance the field intensity around the cloaked object. This is of particular importance in applications such as weak wave detection and near-field sensing.

► The possibility of designing EM cloaks based on spoof surface plasmon was demonstrated.
► An 8.2 GHz EM cloak was implemented using a thin split ring resonator metamaterial layer and the cloaking effect was demonstrated convincingly.
► The implemented cloak was achieved using magnetic spoof surface plasmon.
► Such cloaks do not isolate the cloaked object from outer world. Conversely, they can enhance the field intensity near the cloaked object. This is of many particular application values in non-invasive weak wave detection, high-sensitivity sensing, etc.