![]() Light reflects off the cloak (red arrows) as if it were reflecting off a flat mirror. Their work could also result in a new class of high resolution optical microscopes and superfast optical computers, the author said.įeature Image: A 3D illustration of a metasurface skin cloak made from an ultrathin layer of nanoantennas (gold blocks) covering an arbitrarily shaped object. “A phase shift provided by each individual nanoantenna fully restores both the wavefront and the phase of the scattered light so that the object remains perfectly hidden,” explained co-lead author Zi Jing Wong, who is a member of Zhang’s research group. Their previous attempts to build an invisibility cloak were bulky and hard to scale-up, the researchers said, but their new technique is smaller and reflects light in much the same way as a flat mirror, making objects undetectable to even phase-sensitive detection. Previously, they have been able to curve the path of light, bend it backwards, and render objects optically undetectable. Zhang and his group have been conducting experiments involving these interactions for over a decade. Ordinarily, objects can be observed due to the scattering of light as it interacts with the matter, but this can be circumvented in metamaterials that have optical properties due to their physical structure and not their chemical composition, the study authors explained. It is easy to design and implement, and is potentially scalable for hiding macroscopic objects.” Our ultra-thin cloak now looks like a coat. Objects cannot be seen, even using phase-sensitive detectionĪccording to Zhang, who is corresponding author of the study as well as a member of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at Berkeley, this represents “the first time a 3D object of arbitrary shape has been cloaked from visible light. The object had been arbitrarily shaped with multiple bumps and dents, the researchers explained, and the cloak’s surface had been meta-engineered in order to redirect reflected light waves, thus rendering the object invisible to optical detection as long as the cloak had been activated. They then wrapped this cloak around a three-dimensional object roughly the same size as a handful of biological cells. This new technology, which was developed by researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley, is just microscopic in size at this point, but the principles behind it could be scaled up for use on larger items as well.Īs Xiang Zhang, director of the Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, and his colleagues explained in the latest edition of the journal Science, they took blocks of gold nanoantennas and created a “skin cloak” that was about 80 nanometers thick. The cloak also has an On/Off switch, which is as simple as reversing the fabric's polarity to create the illusion or to seemingly materialize in front of an unwitting person.Experts are getting ever closer to making real-life Harry Potter-style invisibility cloaks, and in the latest breakthrough, scientists have reportedly developed an ultra-thin skin that can conform to an object’s shape while concealing it from detection in visible light. ![]() "A phase shift provided by each individual nanoantenna fully restores both the wavefront and the phase of the scattered light so that the object remains perfectly hidden," explains study co-lead Zi Jing Wong. Regardless of the viewing angle, the mirrors collectively mimic a flat mirror. The cloak is composed of gold nanoantennas and mirrors, which conformed to the dimensions of an arbitrarily shaped object to collectively mimic a flat mirror. A team of researchers at the US Department of Energys Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have created what they call 'an ultra-thin invisibility. What makes this latest invisibility cloak especially encouraging is its collection of mirrors and their ability conform to object of arbitrary dimensions. ![]() ![]() For perspective, the head of a pin has a width of about a million nanometers. The prototype is about 80 nanometers wide. "It is easy to design and implement, and is potentially scalable for hiding macroscopic objects." "Our ultra-thin cloak now looks like a coat," said Zhang. ![]()
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