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Friday, January 05, 2007

"OPTICAL: Metamaterials for cloaking gain visibility"

What is claimed as the world's first metamaterial for visible wavelengths was demonstrated recently at the U.S. Energy Department's Ames Laboratory. Metamaterials exhibit a negative index of refraction, thereby enabling a flat lens to precisely focus light in place of a concave lens. Such metamaterials may also someday enable applications that cloak objects to make them invisible. Numerous researchers have proven that metamaterials exhibit a negative index of refraction, but only for relatively long wavelenghths such as microwaves and more recently, the near infrared. Various researcher have fabricated metamaterials made from submicron metal rings and rods, thereby enabling exquisite focusing of nanoscale features. Until now, none exhibited a negative index of refraction for visible light.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196801564