Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Designing objects that are invisible to electromagnetic waves

Helsing, Johan LU orcid ; Jiang, Shidong and Karlsson, Anders LU (2025) In American Journal of Physics 93(6). p.459-466
Abstract

This article shows that it is, in principle, possible to make a dielectric rod completely invisible to an incident electromagnetic plane wave of a given frequency. Students can derive the conditions that make the rod invisible if they understand the concept of plane waves, the boundary conditions for electric and magnetic fields, and the complex representation of electromagnetic fields. With access to appropriate software, students can determine the bandwidth of the invisibility and investigate whether it is possible to make an invisible rod out of real-world materials. A more advanced project proposed is to use electromagnetic software to find perfectly conducting hollow structures that are invisible to an incident plane wave.

Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
American Journal of Physics
volume
93
issue
6
pages
8 pages
publisher
American Association of Physics Teachers
external identifiers
  • scopus:105006512478
ISSN
0002-9505
DOI
10.1119/5.0238542
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
bc46d044-1226-4014-876f-945ffcd459e2
date added to LUP
2025-07-30 12:12:51
date last changed
2025-10-14 12:53:52
@article{bc46d044-1226-4014-876f-945ffcd459e2,
  abstract     = {{<p>This article shows that it is, in principle, possible to make a dielectric rod completely invisible to an incident electromagnetic plane wave of a given frequency. Students can derive the conditions that make the rod invisible if they understand the concept of plane waves, the boundary conditions for electric and magnetic fields, and the complex representation of electromagnetic fields. With access to appropriate software, students can determine the bandwidth of the invisibility and investigate whether it is possible to make an invisible rod out of real-world materials. A more advanced project proposed is to use electromagnetic software to find perfectly conducting hollow structures that are invisible to an incident plane wave.</p>}},
  author       = {{Helsing, Johan and Jiang, Shidong and Karlsson, Anders}},
  issn         = {{0002-9505}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{459--466}},
  publisher    = {{American Association of Physics Teachers}},
  series       = {{American Journal of Physics}},
  title        = {{Designing objects that are invisible to electromagnetic waves}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/5.0238542}},
  doi          = {{10.1119/5.0238542}},
  volume       = {{93}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}