Omnidirectional surface wave cloak using an isotropic homogeneous dielectric coating

The field of transformation optics owes a lot of its fame to the concept of cloaking. While some experimental progress has been made towards free-space cloaking in three dimensions, the material properties required are inherently extremely difficult to achieve. The approximations that then have to be made to allow fabrication produce unsatisfactory device performance. In contrast, when surface wave systems are the focus, it has been shown that a route distinct from those used to design free-space cloaks can be taken. This results in very simple solutions that take advantage of the ability to incorporate surface curvature. Here, we provide a demonstration in the microwave regime of cloaking a bump in a surface. The distortion of the shape of the surface wave fronts due to the curvature is corrected with a suitable refractive index profile. The surface wave cloak is fabricated from a metallic backed homogeneous dielectric waveguide of varying thickness, and exhibits omnidirectional operation.