Unidirectional Invisibility and Nonreciprocal Transmission in Two and Three Dimensions

Abstract: We explore the phenomenon of unidirectional invisibility in two dimensions, examine its optical realizations, and discuss its three-dimensional generalization. In particular we construct an infinite class of unidirectionally invisible optical potentials that describe the scattering of normally incident transverse electric waves by an infinite planar slab with refractive-index modulations along both the normal directions to the electric field. A by-product of this investigation is a demonstration of nonreciprocal transmission in two dimensions. To elucidate this phenomenon we state and prove a general reciprocity theorem that applies to quantum scattering theory of real and complex potentials in two and three dimensions.