Illusion Optics: The Optical Transformation of an Object into Another Object

Abstract

We propose to use transformation optics to generate a general illusion such that an arbitrary object appears to be like some other object of our choice. This is achieved by using a remote device that transforms the scattered light outside a virtual boundary into that of the object chosen for the illusion, regardless of the profile of the incident wave.This type of illusion device also enables people to see through walls. Our work extends the concept of cloaking as a special form of illusion to the wider realm of illusion optics.

Structure-Induced Ultratransparency in Photonic Crystals

“…It is interesting to note that the omnidirectional perfect transparency and elliptical EFCs of the ultratransparent media are essential for ideal TO devices. The theory of TO [23][24][25][26][27] promises many novel and interesting applications, such as invisibility cloaks [23,25,31,32], concentrators [33], illusion optics devices [34][35][36], and simulations of cosmic phenomena [37,38]. Generally, the TO devices are realized by using metamaterials [14][15][16][17][18][19][20], which require complicated designs of electric and magnetic resonances, hindering the realization and applications in practice.…”

A Planar Focusing Antenna Design With the Quasi-Conformal Mapping

“…Their success has aroused great interests, and the method, transformation optics, coupled with the emerging metamaterial technology, has been intensively explored in various designs such as cloaks [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], perfect lenses [14][15][16], concentrators [17,18], and other novel devices [19][20][21]. Being an indispensable part in telecommunication systems, many new types of antennas have also been proposed based on this powerful tool [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

Transformation method and wave control

“…We can go a step further by folding a part of the virtual space, a complementary medium is then constructed which can conceal its pair-object [13] in context of EM wave, or eventually we can make a real spoon to look apparently as a cup instead, constructing an illusion cloak [14]. Many interesting devices can be imagined, however the basic principle lies in equivalency between geometry and media for EM wave [15].…”