Article Type : Research Article
Authors : Ramm AG
Keywords : Scattering theory; Materials science
A recipe is given for creating materials with
prescribed refraction coefficient. This recipe would be practically applicable
if there is method for preparing small particles with prescribed boundary
impedance. The problem of practical preparing small impedance particles with
prescribed boundary impedance is formulated and its importance in physics and
technology is emphasized. It is shown that if this problem is solved then one
can easily prepare materials with a desired refraction coefficient, in
particular, meta-materials. One can also prepare materials with a desired
radiation pattern.
This is a brief review of the author's work
cited in the references. The most important references are [1-4]. The author's
theory consists of an elective solution to the many-body scattering problem for
small particles of an arbitrary shape, see [5,6]. The practical importance of a
method for producing small particles with prescribed boundary impedance is
emphasized in [7,8]. Some portions of the text of this paper is borrowed. The
authors theory of inverse scattering is presented [9,10]. Monographs present
the theory of wave scattering by obstacles and potentials. In section 1 of this
paper the basic problem of practical preparing (producing, manufacturing) of
small impedance particles is discussed. Wave scattering by many small impedance
particles is developed in, where the basic physical assumption is
a<<d<<. Here a is the characteristic size of the small particles, d is the
minimal distance between neighboring particles, and _ is the wave length in the
medium. We refer for this theory [4]. It is proved there that if one prepares
many small particles with prescribed boundary impedance and embed these
particles (with a specified distribution density, see formula (7) below) into a
given material, then one obtains a material whose refraction coefficient
approximates any desired refraction coefficient with an arbitrary small error.
In particular, one can create meta-materials. How to embed small particles into
a given material physicists know. Therefore the basic practical problem of preparing small impedance
particles with a prescribed boundary impedance is of great interest both
technologically and physically. In section 2 of this paper the basic
definitions are given. It is explained what a small particle is, what an
impedance particle is and what boundary impedance is. In section 3 of this
paper a recipe for creating materials with a desired refraction coefficient is
formulated [1].
Let be a bounded
domain with a connected smooth boundary
be the
unbounded exterior domain and
be the unit
sphere in R3
Consider the scattering problem:
Where k>0 is the wave number, a constant, is a unit vector in the direction of the propagation
of the incident plane wave
is the unit
normal to
pointing out
of,
is the normal
derivative of
is the
boundary impedance,
is the refraction coefficient of the small
impedance particle
is a constant, the scattered field
satisfies the radiation condition.
The
scattering amplitude
Where is the direction of the scattered wave,
is the direction of the incident wave. A
particle of a characteristic size
is called small if it is much smaller than the
wave length, that is,
The
function that
the solution to the scattering problem does exist and is unique [11-13]. If
there are many
small impedance particles embedded in a bounded domain
filled with material whose refraction
coefficient is
,
then the wave scattering problem can be formulated as follows:
In
(4)
Where
the scattered field satisfies the radiation condition, is the total number of the embedded particles.
The incident field
is assumed known. It satisfies equation (4) in
and, as was noted earlier,
in For simplicity we assume that all small particles are of the same
characteristic size
Let
be the Green's function of the scattering
problem in the absence of the embedded particles. Outside
the refraction coefficient
is assumed to be equal to 1.Assume that the
distribution of small particles is given by the formula
Where
is the number of particles in an arbitrary
open subset
of
is a given continuous function,
is a number, and the boundary impedance is
defined as follows [14]:
Where),
is an arbitrary point
and is a given continuous function in
this function, number
and the function can be chosen by the experimenter. The field
in satisfies, as the following integral equation:
Where
is the surface area of a small particle, and are defined in (7)-(8). For simplicity we
assume here that the surface area
is the same for all small particles. It
follows from (9) that the new refraction coefficient in
which one gets after embedding many small
impedance particles [15-17].
Since and are at our disposal, one can get by formula (10) any desirable refraction coefficient such that
Why
should the equation (5) make sense physically regardless of the size of the
particle
Because
a problem whose solution exists and is unique must have sense physically.
Why
should the small impedance particles with a prescribed boundary impedance exist
Because
the particles with acoustically soft particles, do exist, and the
particles with acoustically hard particles, do exist, we
conclude that small particles with any "intermediate" value of the
boundary impedance should also exist.
The
problem we raise is:
How
can one produce practically (fabricate) such particles
Let
us formulate the result in the following theorem:
Theorem 1: Given and a bounded domain one can create in D a material with a desired
refraction Coefficient
by embedding
small impedance particles according to the
distribution law (7). The refraction coefficient
corresponding to a finite a, approximates the
desired refraction coefficient
in the sense
The
functions and
defined in (7)-(8) are found by the Steps 1, 2
of the Recipe formulated below. Finally, let us discuss briefly the possibility
to create material with negative refraction coefficient
one
gets if the argument of
is equal to
Assume that
we know that
0
Let
us take,
where is very small, that is, and is very small. Equation (9) is uniquely
solvable for sufficiently small. For such one concludes that the argument (x)-is very close to and the square root in (10) is negative,
provided that (x)-This argument shows that it is possible to
create materials with negative refraction coefficient by embedding in a given material many small
particles with properly chosen boundary impedances.
A
recipe for creating materials with a desired refraction coefficient
Problem 1: Given a material with
known in a bounded domain and in one wants to create in
a material with a desired
Step 1: Given and (x) calculate (x)].
This is a trivial step.
Step 2: Given calculate and from the equation
The
constant one can take to be if the small particles are balls of radius
.
This we can assume without loss of generality if we are interested in creating
materials with a desired refraction coefficient.
There
are infinitely many solutions and
to the above equation. For example, one can fix arbitrarily in in
and find by the formulas . Here
Note
that implies so our assumption is satisfied. Step 2 is also trivial.
Step 3: Given
and distribute small impedance balls of radius in the bounded region
according to the distribution law (7), where is the number (parameter) that can be chosen
by the experimenter. Note that condition is satisfied automatically for the
distribution law (7). Indeed, if
is the minimal distance between neighboring
particles, then there are at most
particles in a cube with the unit side, and
since
is a bounded domain there are at most of small particles in
.
On the other hand, by the distribution law (7) one has Thus.
Therefore Consequently, condition is satisfied, moreover