Scientists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) are one step closer to making your Harry Potter dream of owning an invisibility cloak a reality. Researchers demonstrated for the first time a practical cloaking device that allows curved surfaces to appear flat to electromagnetic waves.
The scientists successfully made an object disappear by using a material with nano-size particles that can enhance specific properties on the object's surface.
"The design is based upon transformation optics, a concept behind the idea of the invisibility cloak," according to co-author, professor Yang Hao from QMUL's School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science.
"Previous research has shown this technique working at one frequency. However, we can demonstrate that it works at a greater range of frequencies, making it more useful for other engineering applications, such as nano-antennas and the aerospace industry."
The researchers coated a curved surface, similar to the size of a tennis ball, with a nanocomposite medium which has seven distinct layers, called graded index nanocomposite, where the electric property of each layer varies depending on the position. The effect is to 'cloak' the object because such a structure can hide an object that would ordinarily have caused the wave to be scattered.
The underlying design approach has much wider applications, ranging from microwave to optics for the control of any kind of electromagnetic surface waves.
First author Dr Luigi La Spada, also from QMUL, says the study and manipulation of surface waves is the key to develop technological and industrial solutions in the design of real-life platforms, for different application fields.
"We demonstrated a practical possibility to use nanocomposites to control surface wave propagation through advanced additive manufacturing. Perhaps most importantly, the approach used can be applied to other physical phenomena that are described by wave equations, such as acoustics. For this reason, we believe that this work has a great industrial impact."
The research is funded by a grant from the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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