It's long been a staple of science fiction and fantasy imaginers to turn things invisible, whether it's
H.G. Wells and his invisible man, or
Harry Potter's magical cloak.
Michigan Technological University professor Elena Semouchkina is working on making an invisibility cloak a reality, with her research into making small objects appear invisible, using magnetic resonance and glass refraction.
Semouchkina is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tech, and has been working with colleagues at Pennsylvania State University on the invisibility cloak project. Their research was recently published in the journal
Applied Physics Letters, and was supported partly by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Other researchers have used metal rings and wires to create the illusion, but Semouchkina's research uses glass resonators. In computer simulations, the cloak made tiny objects hit by infrared waves disappear from sight.
"Ours is the first to do the cloaking of cylindrical objects with glass," Semouchkina says.
Her invisibility cloak uses glass resonators arranged in the shape of a cylinder, which produces the magnetic resonance required to bend light waves around an object, making it invisible.
Next up is the use of ceramic resonators and microwave frequencies, with which the researchers plan to hide larger objects, since microwaves are longer than infrared light. They have been able to cloak metal cylinders two to three inches in diameter and three to four inches high so far.
"Starting from these experiments, we want to move to higher frequencies and smaller wavelengths," Semouchkina says. "The most exciting applications will be at the frequencies of visible light."
Being able to cloak visible light would mean a real-world invisibility cloak, which would have military and police applications, just to name a few. But that's not going to happen just yet.
"It is possible in principle, but not at this time," Semouchkina says.
Writer: Sam EgglestonSource: Elena Semouchkina, Michigan Tech
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