Inverse design of microstructures of non-Hermitian scattering systems

We extend the concept of the structure factor, which is one of the most widely used descriptors for disordered materials, to the regime of non-Hermitian physics. This non-Hermitian structure factor is based on the auto- and cross-correlations of complex optical potentials. By devising the inverse design process for the structure factor, we investigate the material statistics to this wave-based modelling to material science. We also show that the resulting material phase from the inverse design yields distinct scattering for the forward and backward waves, while the angular mode number can also be freely manipulated within the accessible ansatz functions.