New silver metamaterial will help create an invisibility cloak and expedite computer processing

A team of scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) and the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in the Russian Academy of Sciences has proposed a two-dimensional metamaterial composed of silver elements, that refracts light in an unusual way. The research has been published on November 18 in Optical Material Express ("Negative-angle refraction and reflection of visible light with a planar array of silver dimers"). In the future, these structures will be able to be used to develop compact optical devices, as well as to create an "invisibility cloak."

The results of computer simulations carried out by the authors showed that it would be a high performance material for light with a wavelength from 400-500nm (violet, blue and light blue). Efficiency in this case is defined as the percentage of light scattered in a desired direction. The efficiency of the material is approximately 70% for refraction, and 80% for reflection of the light. Theoretically, the efficiency could reach 100%, but in real metals there are losses due to ohm resistance.