Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have been able to hide three-dimensional objects by using artificially engineered materials that redirected lights around the object. The discovery is one step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light.
The researchers, led by Xiang Zhang, used metamaterials that deflected light, radar or other waves around an object such as water flowing around a smooth stone in a river.
The metamaterials used by the research team were mixtures of metal and circuit board materials like ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite. These materials bent visible light in a manner that ordinary materials do not. When the team used it to bend light around objects, it did not create reflections or shadows.
It does not make an airplane invisible, but would cut the cross-section detected by a radar, making aircraft tracking difficult. It is one of the many broad applications the technology has, particularly military ones.
The study was, after all, financed by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation's Nano-Scale Science and Engineering Center. The research will come out later this week in Nature and Science journals.
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