SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY
'Cloaking' a 3-D Object From All Angles Demonstrated
from BBC News Online
Researchers have "cloaked" a three-dimensional object, making it invisible from all angles,
for the first time. However, the demonstration works only for waves in the microwave region of
the electromagnetic spectrum. It uses a shell of what are known as plasmonic materials; they
present a "photo negative" of the object being cloaked, effectively cancelling it out.
The idea, outlined in New Journal of Physics, could find first application in
high-resolution microscopes. Most of the high-profile invisibility cloaking efforts have focused
on the engineering of "metamaterials"--modifying materials to have properties that cannot be
found in nature.
The modifications allow metamaterials to guide and channel light in unusual
ways--specifically, to make the light rays arrive as if they had not passed over or been
reflected by a cloaked object.
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