When David R. Smith’s research group published results of their work on novel metamaterials, you would have thought that they had built the Romulan cloaking device. But, as David Smith reports, their research and results are really only baby steps toward achieving this type of invisibility. The amazing thing about the research is that even 5 or 6 years ago, this type of result could not have been achieved. This is in large part due to the advent of metamaterials. Metamaterials use nano technology to synthesize structures that have unique electromagnetic properties.
These properties allow for different wavelengths to be altered in ways that simply aren’t possible using naturally synthesized materials. Say what? They are creating structures that have no known counterpart in nature. And these structures create unique effects on microwaves, magentic fields, visible light, etc. Did Smith’s team achieve invisibility? No. Basically, they hid a small metal disk from passing microwaves. They surrounded the metal disk with a circle of metamaterials. This medium sped the microwaves up around the disk, allowing the waves to return back to their original state on the other side. Remember, as the waves pass around the disk, they have more space to cover and have to speed up to catch up with surrounding waves. You can watch the video below to see a demonstration.
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The Truth About Duke’s Cloaking Device
[…] Original post by Administrator and software by Elliott Back 9:38 am […]
[…] in the latest camera/projector test. His studies seem to be running sort of parallel to what David Smith at Duke University is doing with cloaking. The idea is to use materials that allow visible light, and other wavelengths in the spectrum, to […]