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http://www.thestatecolumn.com/scienc...ibility-cloak/

Have scientists created an invisibility cloak?


The State Column | Staff | Thursday, January 26, 2012





A team of scientists at University of Texas at Austin have reportedly created a cloak possible of concealing three-dimension objects, the latest attempt by scientists to create a cloaking device capable of completely concealing any object.
The research, published today in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society’s New Journal of Physics, explains the use of a method known as “plasmonic cloaking” to hide an 18-centimetre cylindrical tube from microwaves.


The experiment, the first of its kind, reportedly revealed the ability to cloak a three-dimension object rather than a two-dimensional object, according to scientists.
The cloaking device relies not only by scattering light, but instead by relying on coating a cylinder with a nanometer-sized plasmonic material that then scatters light along with other electromagnetic waves.
“One of the advantages of the plasmonic cloaking technique is its robustness and moderately broad bandwidth of operation, superior to conventional cloaks based on transformation metamaterials,” said Andrea Alu, one of the lead scientists, in a statement.
The system was tested by directing microwaves towards the cloaked cylinder and mapping the resulting scattering both around the object and in the far-field. The experiment relied on one single object, however, researchers said that cloaking a range of objects is possible. The team noted the experiment shows that it is even possible to cloak light itself, a revelation that could usher in a new age of cloaking devices years from now.
“In principle, this technique could be used to cloak light; in fact, some plasmonic materials are naturally available at optical frequencies. However, the size of the objects that can be efficiently cloaked with this method scales with the wavelength of operation, so when applied to optical frequencies we may be able to efficiently stop the scattering of micrometre-sized objects,” said Ms. Alu. “Still, cloaking small objects may be exciting for a variety of applications. For instance, we are currently investigating the application of these concepts to cloak a microscope tip at optical frequencies. This may greatly benefit biomedical and optical near-field measurements.”
The experiment comes as a number of research facilities have announced similar success in cloaking objects. Previous efforts rendered objects invisible along a plane, in two dimensions, by bending microwaves around the objects. Last year, researchers demonstrated an invisibility cloak that worked in three dimensions, concealing a bump on a reflective surface.
It remains unclear whether the experiment will usher in a new era of cloaking devices for the U.S. military. Researchers in New York reported in 2008 that they had created a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it. More recently, a team at Cornell University, with support from DARPA, the Pentagon’s out-there research arm, managed to hide an event for 40 picoseconds.
In addition, researchers at the University of Texas, Dallas, last year harnessed the mirage effect to make objects vanish. And in 2010, physicists at the University of St. Andrews made leaps towards using metamaterials to trick human eyes into not seeing what was right in front of them.


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