The normalized total scattering cross section as a function of permittivity of the inner dielectric cylinder covered by low-loss gain-assisted multilayers (a) and high-loss gain-assisted multilayers (b). The total field distribution for the optimized low-loss gain-assisted multilayers with an inner dielectric ɛ = 7.8 (c) and for the optimized high-loss gain-assisted multilayers with an inner dielectric ɛ = 4.2 (d).