 Science / AAAS |
This graphic shows a 3-D nanostructure, consisting of a bumpy gold surface layer with the tailored “invisibility cloak” underneath. The cloak, made from laser-sculpted layers of polymer, hides the bump from optical detection. |
Scientists have designed a more stylish cloak of invisibility that can hide a bumpy feature from view, even if you’re looking right at it from a wide range of perspectives. But don’t expect boy wizard Harry Potter to be modeling this cloak anytime soon.
It’s actually more like an ultra-thin carpet of invisibility, created from layers of laser-sculpted polymer and topped off with a bumpy coating of gold.
“In our carpet, you could put any object beneath the bump, and it would be hidden because the bump itself is hidden,” Tolga Ergin, a physicist at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, told me. The research conducted by Ergin and his colleagues was published online today by the journal Science.
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