Two research teams have made structures that could help conceal objects from daylight – taking the next step towards making the visible, invisible. Recent progress draws on advances in so-called metamaterials, which are microscopic structures that bend light in unnatural directions.
Metamaterials have already managed to reroute microwaves, infrared radiation and, given the right circumstances, visible colours, so that they go around metal obstacles and living creatures.
'These experiments have demonstrated the underlying physics of a cloaking device,' said Professor Costas Soukoulis from the Foundation for Research and Technology in Heraklion, Greece, who is also working to develop this technology through a research project called PHOTOMETA, funded by the EU's European Research Council (ERC).
But Prof. Soukoulis acknowledged that existing invisibility cloaks still fall short of the standards set by Perseus or Harry Potter and said that 'most metamaterials still struggle to bend light that is visible to the naked eye'.
An additional shortcoming is the tendency of metamaterials to absorb part of the light that shines through them, which casts a recognisable shadow. Most are also cumbersome to carry and impractical to manufacture.
However, Dr Patrice Genevet from the CRHEA research centre in Valbonne, France, is hoping to address these challenges by using light materials and visual techniques from the electronic display industry.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-08-invisibility-cloak-closer-revealing.html#jCp
Two research teams have made structures that could help conceal objects from daylight – taking the next step towards making the visible, invisible. Recent progress draws on advances in so-called metamaterials, which are microscopic structures that bend light in unnatural directions.
Metamaterials have already managed to reroute microwaves, infrared radiation and, given the right circumstances, visiblecolours, so that they go around metal obstacles and living creatures.
'These experiments have demonstrated the underlying physics of a cloaking device,' said Professor Costas Soukoulis from the Foundation for Research and Technology in Heraklion, Greece, who is also working to develop this technology through a research project called PHOTOMETA, funded by the EU's European Research Council (ERC).
But Prof. Soukoulis acknowledged that existing invisibility cloaks still fall short of the standards set by Perseus or Harry Potter and said that 'most metamaterials still struggle to bend light that is visible to the naked eye'.
An additional shortcoming is the tendency of metamaterials to absorb part of the light that shines through them, which casts arecognisable shadow. Most are also cumbersome to carry and impractical to manufacture.
However,Dr Patrice Genevet from the CRHEA research centre in Valbonne, France, is hoping to address these challenges by using light materials and visual techniques from the electronic display industry.