Exactness of the Born approximation and broadband unidirectional invisibility in two dimensions

Abstract

Achieving exact unidirectional invisibility in a finite frequency band has been an outstanding problem for many years. We offer a simple solution to this problem in two dimensions that is based on our solution to another more basic open problem of scattering theory, namely finding scattering potentials $v(x,y)$ in two dimensions whose scattering problem is exactly solvable for energies not exceeding a critical value $E_c$. This extends the notion of quasi-exact solvability to scattering theory and yields a simple condition under which the first Born approximation gives the exact expression for the scattering amplitude whenever the wavenumber for the incident wave is not greater than $\alpha:=\sqrt{E_c}$. Because this condition only restricts the $y$-dependence of $v(x,y)$, we can use it to determine classes of such potentials that have certain desirable scattering features. This leads to a partial inverse scattering scheme that we employ to achieve perfect broadband unidirectional invisibility in two dimensions. We discuss an optical realization of the latter by identifying a class of two-dimensional isotropic active media that do not scatter incident TE waves with wavenumber in the range $(\alpha/\sqrt 2,\alpha]$ and source located at $x=\infty$, while scattering the same waves if their source is relocated to $x=-\infty$.