Three forms of omnidirectional acoustic invisibility engineered using fast elastodynamic transfer-matrix method

Acoustic metamaterial structures with discrete and continuous rotational symmetries attract interest of theorists and engineers due to the relative simplicity of their design and fabrication. They are also likely candidates for omnidirectional acoustic cloaking and other transformation-acoustical novelties. In this paper, we employ a stratified description of such structures, and develop the theory and an efficient symbolic/numerical algorithm for analyzing the scattering properties of such structures immersed in homogeneous fluid environments. The algorithm calculates the partial scattering amplitudes and the related scattering phases for an arbitrary layered distribution of acoustic material properties. The efficiency of the algorithm enables us to find approximate solutions to certain inverse scattering problems through quasi-global optimization. The scattering problems addressed here are the three forms of cloaking: (1) extinction cross-section suppression, the canonical form of cloaking, (2) monostatic sonar invisibility (backscattering suppression), and (3) acoustic force cloaking (transport cross-section suppression). We also address the efficiency-bandwidth tradeoff and design approximate cloaks with wider bandwidth using a new optimization formulation. (paper)