An invisible cloak is no longer a fantasy item after American scientists succeeded in creating the first concealed-to-the-naked-eye garment in a microwave light laboratory.
Although exposed by natural or electrical light, the mini version of the 66-by-100 micrometre thick cloak made from metascreen makes use of a technique called mantle cloaking.
Through this ability, the cancellation of light waves approaching its copper stripped flexible polycarbonate film fabrication misleads the human eye by bouncing off fast enough to avoid visibility.
Andrea Alu, co-author and physicist at the University of Texas at Austin, explained: “When the scattered fields from the cloak and the object interfere, they cancel each other out and the overall effect is transparency and invisibility at all angles of observation.”
The victorious attempt at using non-bulk metamaterial, as was otherwise employed in previous unsuccessful efforts, offers an alternative to the formerly tried reflection and light ray-bending techniques.
“In fact, metascreens are easier to realize at visible frequencies than bulk metamaterials and this concept could put us closer to a practical realisation,” Alu said, as reported by CBS News.
Although the practicality of applying the newly found science is with larger objects, this technology can be used in biomedical instruments and non-invasive sensing devices.
The invention was made public with an article in the New Journal of Physics, published last week.
HumanIPO reported in February on a dress that alters its levels of transparency according to the wearer’s levels of arousal.
