Can you imagine what would it be like to bend light in such a way that you are rendered totally invisible? Imagine evading Voldemort’s clutches, winning an intergalactic battle, or at the least, easily slipping into class whenever you’re late. But of course, invisibility is absurdly impossible – or is it?
We can refract, diffract, and polarize light. We now know even the once previously mysterious properties of light. If the very nature of invisibility stems from how light works, can we be so quick to say that invisibility is theoretically inconceivable? In fact, we actually already see forms of pseudo-invisibility, from transparent objects and camouflage to stealth technology for radars and chroma keying in filmmaking.
Even the invisibility seemingly real only to science fiction is actually the work of metamaterials, the latest in the Peverell brothers’ concoctions. Metamaterials, artificial composites with properties not found in nature, can, by way of their negative refractive index, bend light backwards. Unlike naturally occurring material, metamaterials derive their characteristics from structure rather than chemical composition, which makes them useful in interacting with and manipulating electromagnetic waves, opening them up to many potential applications, such as imaging, optical communications, and of course, invisibility.
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