Scientists Create New "Invisible" Material & "Transparent" Photonics Chip

Scientists Create New "Invisible" Material

www.reuters.com...
Tue Jul 12, 2011 1:58am EDT

Forget the merely invisible, scientists at Columbia Engineering School have created a new material that behaves as if it doesn't even exist, at least when it comes to light. The new material is a nanoscale structure that allows light to pass through as if it was traversing empty space. In very general terms, that means the light does not slow down or "bend" when it exits the material. The discovery could lead to a new generation of highly precise and efficient photonic devices, especially in fiberoptic telecommunications equipment. Somewhat ironically, this invisible-behaving material that is not actually invisible could also be used to create a real life Invisibility Cloak, at least for small objects. The full study is available at Nature Photonics.
Nanoscale Metamaterials

The new material is a "metamaterial," an artificial material possessing unique properties that may not occur in nature. In this case, the Columbia scientists "sculpted" a cascading series of nanostructures (a nano is one billionth of a meter) that are smaller than light waves. The result is a material that reverses what you would normally expect when light passes through a substance.
Getting Light to Behave the Way You Want

Normal materials have a positive refractive index, which refers to the speed of light passing through a material, relative to its speed in a vacuum. The refractive index is also related to the bending of light as it passes through a material like a glass prism, for example. The new metamaterial creates a sort of artificial vacuum with a refractive index of zero. When used to create chips for photonic devices, the metamaterial would enable precise control over the flow of light. Advanced telecommunications and consumer devices are just a couple of examples of potential applications for the new chips, which could also find numerous applications in emerging robotics fields.

“Transparent” photonics chip may lead to faster networks and cloaks of invisibility

www.extremetech.com...

....To create this “invisible” chip, the scientists had to create photonic crystals that have a negative refractive index. All natural materials in the known universe have a positive refractive index — which means that they alter the trajectory of any electromagnetic radiation that travels through it, including light.....

The implications and potential ramifications of this new technology are rather exciting. It will first have an impact on the biggest user of photonics: telecommunications...could be used to create highly directional antennae, and even faster wireless networks...computer chips that actually process data using light.

...this breakthrough might lead us towards a cloak of invisibility. “We can now control the flow of light, the fastest thing known to us. This can … [potentially lead to] an approach to cloak or hide objects, at least in the small-scale...

I think this technology is pretty cool. I remember when the "military" was behind the cloaking technology but now we see that it is slowly becoming mainstream in science. Imagine the implications that light has on our networks and you will see that our current technology is so dinosaur!

Keep rockin scientists!!!

yeeeeh! this makes spying and assassinations even easier, I cannot see this application be used more for that than anything else.

GM

Imagen light replacing electricity when it comes to electronics. Light is faster then electricity and it would be able to use the same concepts we have to day with microchips and resistors. Light off is 0 light on is 1.

Um, pictures or it didn't happen!

Seriously- very cool though!

Originally posted by Planet teleX
Um, pictures or it didn't happen!

Seriously- very cool though!

I tried to find pictures that would go along with this story. I am sure that as this new technology is/will be patent pending, I highly doubt any pictures would be released on the material...especially if it catches the interests of the military~!

But would they show anything?