Two teams of scientists have developed a cloak that renders objects invisible to near-infrared light, BBC News reported. The new technology, however, does not contain metals unlike previous such “cloaks” that resulted in imperfect cloaking because of losses of light.
Researchers say that since the approach can be scaled down further in size, the new technology is a major step towards a cloak that would work for visible light.John Pendry from Imperial College London first theorized a cloak with a “carpet” design in 2008. One of the research teams describes its miniature “carpet cloak” in the journal Nature Materials.
“This is a huge step forward, a tremendous achievement,” says Professor Ortwin Hess of the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey. “It’s a careful choice of the right materials and the right structuring to get this effect for the first time at these wavelengths.”
Siddharth Zarabi is Editor (Economic Policy) and Delhi Bureau Chief at CNBC-TV18.