Megan ByrnePrototype Developed For Invisibility Cloak
October 22nd 2006 04:36
Professor Sir John Pendry of Imperial College London and a team of researchers from Duke University, USA have successfully developed a prototype for an invisibility cloak. The findings were reported on May 25, 2006 in Science Express, the online advance publication of the journal Science.
The prototype only works in two dimension and only on microwaves, but the experiment proves invisibility cloaks can be built. David R. Smith, Augustine Scholar and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke’s Pratt School said, "The concept that you can cloak something and make something invisible can now be demonstrated by this method”.
"However, natural materials display only a limited palette of possible electromagnetic properties," he added. "The theory has only now become relevant because we can make metamaterials with the properties we are looking for."
Metamaterials, developed only seven years ago, use a matrix of exceptionally tiny, sometimes nanoscale, metal wires and loops to control electromagnetic radiation in ways natural substances can't. Metamaterials owe their properties to their internal structure (rather than their chemistry) which 'grabs' light heading towards the cloak and makes it flow smoothly around the cloak instead of striking it.
To test the prototype cloak, the researchers aimed a microwave beam at it inside a test chamber between two metal plates, and then measured the electromagnetic fields both inside and outside the cloak. Their measurements showed that the electromagnetic waves separated and flowed around the center of the cloak, as predicted by theory.
Such a cloak could hide any object so well that observers would be totally unaware of its presence, according to the researchers. It would act like it made a hole in space and all light or other electromagnetic waves would be guided by the metamaterial around the area, emerging on the other side.
According to the researchers, this new technology could have numerous uses: aiding antenna and radar designs, military and defense applications, wireless communications.
The prototype only works in two dimension and only on microwaves, but the experiment proves invisibility cloaks can be built. David R. Smith, Augustine Scholar and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke’s Pratt School said, "The concept that you can cloak something and make something invisible can now be demonstrated by this method”.
"However, natural materials display only a limited palette of possible electromagnetic properties," he added. "The theory has only now become relevant because we can make metamaterials with the properties we are looking for."
Metamaterials, developed only seven years ago, use a matrix of exceptionally tiny, sometimes nanoscale, metal wires and loops to control electromagnetic radiation in ways natural substances can't. Metamaterials owe their properties to their internal structure (rather than their chemistry) which 'grabs' light heading towards the cloak and makes it flow smoothly around the cloak instead of striking it.
To test the prototype cloak, the researchers aimed a microwave beam at it inside a test chamber between two metal plates, and then measured the electromagnetic fields both inside and outside the cloak. Their measurements showed that the electromagnetic waves separated and flowed around the center of the cloak, as predicted by theory.
Such a cloak could hide any object so well that observers would be totally unaware of its presence, according to the researchers. It would act like it made a hole in space and all light or other electromagnetic waves would be guided by the metamaterial around the area, emerging on the other side.
According to the researchers, this new technology could have numerous uses: aiding antenna and radar designs, military and defense applications, wireless communications.
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