Technology to make invisibility cloak using invisible beams

Scientists have developed a new technology to create invisibility cloaks like in science fiction movies.

The material becomes transparent when illuminated by a laser beam from above. Photo: TU Wien.

Stefan Rotter, a theoretical physicist at the Technical University of Vienna in Austria, and his colleagues developed a new technology to create invisibility cloaks, making objects appear to disappear by shining an "invisible beam" on them, according to Live Science. The research results were published in the journal Light: Science & Applications on October 8.

“Complex materials like a sugar cube are opaque because of their disordered structure, which causes light to scatter within them many times. Light waves can enter and exit the object, but they do not travel through the medium in a straight line. Instead, the light scatters in many different directions,” Rotter said.

In theory, invisibility cloaks work by bending the path of light that hits them using a special material. But with their new method, Rotter and his colleagues don't want to reposition the light waves.

“Our goal is to guide the original light wave through the object, as if it were not there. This may sound strange, but it is entirely possible with certain materials and our special wave technology,” said co-author Andre Brandstötter.

The team's idea is to shine a beam, such as a laser, at the material from above to "pump" it full of energy. The material's properties will be changed, making it transparent to different wavelengths of light shining in from the side.

“The beam would be directed down at the material from above like a video projector, but with much higher resolution,” said Konstantinos Makris, a member of the research team at the University of Crete, Greece.

According to VNE