Friday 22 August 2008

Practical Cloaking Devices

Invisibility cloaks get a step closer to realization, with the demonstration of a new material that can bend (visible) light the 'wrong' way for the first time in three dimensions. In Nature this week, researchers report a metamaterial that produces negative refraction of visible light, and show that it can be can be easily probed from free space, paving the way for practical optical device applications. Metamaterials are artificially engineered structures that have properties, such as negative refractive index, not attainable with naturally occurring materials. Only thin, effectively two-dimensional materials have been demonstrated until now, limiting practical applications.Jason Valentine, Xiang Zhang and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley create a multilayered, ‘fishnet’ structure which unambiguously exhibits negative refractive index. (PhysOrg.com)



Shown is a schematic and two scanning electron microscope images with top and side views of a metamaterial developed by UC Berkeley researchers. The material is composed of parallel nanowires embedded inside porous aluminum oxide. As visible light passes through the material, it is bent backwards in a phenomenon known as negative refraction.

2 comments:

GMG said...

Hi Dawning One! First of all many thanks for your comment on my post of 08.08.08 at 08h08 at Blogtrotter, now in Kos, Greece! It was great to read you there. Second, sorry for the long delay to come here, but August was a terribly busy month, as everybody else seems to be in vacation…
Anyhow, I found sometime now to land here and enjoy your blog. Always learning. Great treat!
Wish you a great weekend!

Dawning One said...

thanks gmg!
September is my busy month

Life & fire

Life & fire
is this the Dawning One?

Hello there traveller

Welcome to the mind and reality of a new and changing world.

What do you aspire to be and do in the new reality that is being created as you read?

Will you try to hang on to the old ways that are soon to be erased or will you step into the void and create a new reality ripe with the promise of fulfilment of a thousand golden years?

The choice is yours and yours alone...
Choose wisely.