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Invisibility Cloaking Takes a Big Stride At a Small Scale

Posted by timothy on from the back-in-my-day-visible-meant-visible dept.

jan_jes writes: Scientists have devised an ultra-thin invisibility "skin" cloak that can conform to the shape of an object and conceal it from detection with visible light. Although this cloak is only microscopic in size, the principles behind the technology should enable it to be scaled-up to conceal macroscopic items as well. The scientists used brick-like blocks of gold nanoantennas to form the 80-nanometer-thick cloak, which conformed to the arbitrary bumps and dents in the 1,300-square-micrometer sample object. The cloak, a metamaterial engineered to bend light in ways not seen in nature, was able to reflect red light as if it were bouncing off a flat mirror.

18 comments

  1. you know that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You already can't see microscopic things...

    1. Re:you know that... by Calydor · · Score: 0

      Except in a microscope.

      That's kinda what those things are for.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  2. If it ever gets human-scaled by Number42 · · Score: 1
    From TFA:

    If it was used to make black dresses, the wearer’s head and limbs might appear to float around a dress-shaped hole.

    We now have a whole new technology for rich idiots to prank each other with. Or just make dressing up as headless horsemen for Halloween easier.

    1. Re:If it ever gets human-scaled by Pikoro · · Score: 1

      That section was talking about the recently created superblack nanomaterial. Not this cloak.

      --
      "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  3. visible light is over-rated by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    can't believe half of its reflections.

  4. Why do we let Muslims into the country? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    If the culture that encourages acceptance at all costs meets one that demands others be extinguished, the former will be destroyed.

    1. Re:Why do we let Muslims into the country? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which country is that?

    2. Re:Why do we let Muslims into the country? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the culture that encourages acceptance at all costs meets one that demands others be extinguished, the former will be destroyed.

      Yes just like criminals who aren't worried about a murder charge(s) also are not going to obey weapons laws. But the liberal mind has great difficulty acknowledging such basic things. Liberals are like spoiled children who always had Daddy to fix things for them, never having to deal with their own choices. That's why they are so fond of name-calling and character accusations ("you disagree with Obama on health care? Racism!"). That's what children do - children don't make logical arguments and change their minds when new evidence is discovered - neither do liberals. No that's when children get mad, and so do liberals. Liberals just cannot bring themselves to accept unpleasant realities. The irony is, accepting them is the only way to take constructive action to change them. So these things don't change.. Islam continues to spread by force (just look at France) and "gun free zones" continue to be the targets of choice for mass shootings.

    3. Re:Why do we let Muslims into the country? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yawn, is that twaddle the best you got.
      The usual ratings of the micro penis, let me guess, big truck, big gun, tiny dick.

    4. Re: Why do we let Muslims into the country? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interesting you should say that they don't make logical arguments. Given that your entire argument seems to be an ad hominem.

  5. More like a cloth mirror, but still impressive by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Interesting
    No, it does not shield the object from all directions. The invisibility is available is possible for only one viewing direction, possibly with with narrow angular limits. In that sense it is more like David Copperfield, mirrors and things like railroad cars or jetliners "disappearing". But the impressive thing is that though it reflects light like a plane mirror, it is a cloth that is draped over an arbitrary shape. We have seen reflective patches on jogging suits and jackets of people working near highways. But this one seems to be behave like a virtual plane mirror despite being draped over objects.

    Quite interesting, seems to be using diffraction patterns of these bricks. Reminds me of the Material Science 201 class where they talk about X-Ray diffraction pattern of crystalline structure, the Bragg's equation, 2 d sin(theta) = n lambda from the dim recesses of my memory. I could not get it then how the powdered substance with structures oriented in all the planes could be understood by the neat rows of dots, one incident and one reflected ray shown in the diagram. I don't get it now how this cloth could create that diffraction pattern.

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    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  6. Nothing to see here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    move along!

  7. Unfortunately, immediately after they applied the by mark_reh · · Score: 5, Funny

    coating, they lost the prototype and it hasn't been seen since.

  8. so if you made a full size one ... by kencurry · · Score: 2

    It would mirror the light hitting it, from all sides, and that would not just look very weird?

    Sorry, but premise makes no sense. Invisibility requires that you process the image as seen from the viewer, then somehow project that image to the viewer on the surface of the cloak. Way, way, way different than what this might scale up to (if ever).

    --
    sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)