Invisibility cloaks are coming true

Scientists claim to have developed an invisibility cloak, though not completely hidden as Harry Potter, but is also an important first step to pave the way for intricate designs.

The invisibility cloak will bend the infrared rays, so that they run around an object hidden inside, making the viewer feel there is nothing there. Technology can be used to evade radar or to use in wireless communications.

" It's not like the Harry Potter series ," said David Smith, of Duke University, North Carolina, USA. " It's not perfect, but we're going to do better." It demonstrates the mechanism, the way the waves travel around the central area where you want to hide the object . "

(Artwork: smugmug.com) any hard objects are dispersed radiation touching it. This dispersion makes the objects visible, whether by eye or radar or by ultrasound.

The invisibility cloak changes this dispersive effect . It is based on a new material made in a laboratory called metamaterial. The new material has properties that can be adjusted to change its structure. For example, metamaterial can reduce the dispersion of the hard object and the shade it creates.

In this case, the invisibility cloak is very thick, twice the thickness of a 15 cm thick copper tube that is hidden inside. The material is then arranged in concentric circles.

Invisibility cloak works only in 2D environments. But researchers have started working on the 3D version. The equipment is only effective with the wavelength at certain wavelengths. Researchers hope to expand the wavelength range that the device can impact.

But to make something invisible to the human eye is a big challenge. Such a shirt must simultaneously interact with every wavelength that makes up the light. This should be done at the nanoscale level, but the related metals work differently on that scale.

" This is a very important experiment to put some assumptions into reality, " said Costas Soukoulis, a professor at the Iowa Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory.

MT