Published on October 17, 2007

Invisibility Closer to Reality

Metamaterials are an exotic class of materials, whose properties are due to their structure rather than their composition.

Such metamaterials demonstrate negative refractive index for electromagnetic waves in both visible and invisible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which would make the objects invisible to naked eye and radar, respectively. However, don't expect a Harry Potter's type of invisibility cloak any time soon!

New materials developed at Princeton University consist of alternating layers of indium gallium arsenide and aluminum indium arsenide, and they are tuned to work in the infrared region of the spectrum.

The first applications the Princeton researchers are developing is a flat lens for chemical-sensing devices.