FDTD modelling of transformation electromagnetics based devices

Transformation Electromagnetics (TE), often referred to as Transformation Optics (TO), is a subject area of much interest worldwide, along with the topic of metamaterials. The concept was introduced through a demonstration of invisible cloaks, comprised of a shell of metamaterials engineered to route electromagnetic waves around an object, so as to render it “invisible”. Although the performance of an invisible cloak does not always live up to its expectations, the potential of the underlying TE approach has a much wider applicability than cloaking alone, covering important areas such as communications, energy transfer, sensors and security. In this chapter, the fundamental design issues pertaining to TE-based devices are examined from the perspective of numerical modelling. The FDTD technique is employed to illustrate the key concepts and to identify the challenges encountered in implementing the TE-based designs. Current and future trends of FDTD modelling related to this topic are discussed.