In popular science fiction, the power of invisibility is readily apparent. Star Trek fans, for example, know that the devious Romulans could make their spaceships suddenly disappear.
But is the idea really so implausible? Not according to new findings by scientists who say they have come up with a way to create cloaking device.
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Electronic engineers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia are researching a device they say could make objects "nearly invisible to an observer." The contrivance works by preventing light from bouncing off the surface of an object, causing the object to appear so small it all but disappears.
The concept was reported today by the science news Web site news@nature.com. It says the proposed cloaking device would not require any peripheral attachments (such as antennas or computer networks) and would reduce visibility no matter what angle an object is viewed at.
Sir John Pendry, a physicist at Imperial College, London, said the concept potentially holds several important applications "in stealth technology and camouflage."
While types of invisibility shielding have been developed before, the phenomenon described by Andrea Alú and Nader Engheta sounds like something that might have been witnessed from the bridge of science fiction's starship Enterprise.
The concept is based on a "plasmonic cover," which is a means to prevent light from scattering. (It is light bouncing off an object that makes it visible to an observer).
The cover would stop light from scattering by resonating at the same frequency as the light striking it. If such a device could cope with different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation (including visible light), in theory, the object would vanish into thin air.
Plasmonic Covers
Alú and Engheta investigated experimental plasmonic covers that incorporated metals, such as gold and silver, to hide visible light.
When light strikes a metallic material, waves of electrons, called plasmons, are generated. The engineers found that when the frequency of the light striking the material matched the frequency of the plasmons, the two frequencies act to cancel each other out.
Under such conditions, the metallic object scattered only negligible amounts of light.
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