Wednesday, 19th December 2007 (4191 views)

Researchers at the University of Maryland have made an 'invisibility cloak' by adding plastic to areas of a gold film, it has emerged.

The plastic and gold bend light in different ways and, when combined, allow light to pass around a covered object as though it were not there.

But the technology is not yet ready for mass production, with objects up to one-fifth the thickness of a human hair currently capable of being disguised.

The team at the university's A James Clark school of engineering consisted of Professor Christopher Davis, graduate student Yu-Ju Hung and research scientist Igor Smolyaninov.

Concentric rings of plastic are placed on to the gold film in order to achieve the effect - although the researchers admit some of the light is still absorbed, meaning the invisibility is not perfect.

While gold is the main component of the cloak, the layer used by the researchers was 50 nm thick - 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.

 

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