Challenges in the fabrication of an optical frequency ground plane cloak consisting of silicon nanorod arrays

The application of transformation optical techniques to photonic crystal-like dielectric structures has facilitated the creation of invisibility cloaks that operate at optical wavelengths. In this article, the authors present the fabrication processes for an all-dielectric ground plane cloak structure that consists of multiple silicon nanorod arrays connected by input and output waveguides. An advantage of this particular design is that it does not use metals to obtain metamaterial-like device behavior. The structure consists only of dielectrics that can be processed by the use of electron beam nanofabrication technologies and is designed to operate in the 1400–1600 nm wavelength range. © 2010 American Vacuum Society. DOI: 10.1116/1.3504595