Inverse design: New route to design a practical invisibility cloak
With the emergence of metamaterials and transformation optics in the past few years, invisibility has become a scientific possibility that has attracted sustainable research interest. Recently, a review paper, entitled "Invisibility cloak from forward design to inverse design", published in SCIENCE CHINA Information Sciences, 2013, Vol. 56, reviewed design methodologies and experimental developments of the invisibility cloak from a practical perspective. The recent transition from a forward cloaking design to inverse cloaking design was also addressed. The paper pointed out that the combination of "forward designs" and "inverse designs" rather than using a single cloaking strategy is very likely to make invisibility cloaks far more realistic.