Dynamic cloaking of a diamond-shaped hole in elastic plate

Invisibility cloaks for flexural waves have mostly been examined in a continuous-wave regime, while invisibility is likely to deteriorate for short pulses. Here, we propose the practical realization of a unidirectional invisibility cloak for flexural waves based on an area-preserving coordinate transformation. Time-resolved experiments reveal how the invisibility cloak deviates a pulsed plane wave from its initial trajectory and how the initial wavefront perfectly recombines behind the cloak, leaving the diamond-shaped hole invisible, notwithstanding the appearance of a forerunner. Three-dimensional full-elasticity simulations support our experimental observations.

Automated summary

In this study, the practical realization of a unidirectional invisibility cloak for flexural waves using an area-preserving coordinate transformation is proposed. Time-resolved experiments and three-dimensional full-elasticity simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the cloak in deviating pulsed plane waves and recombining the initial wavefront.