Researchers develop metamaterial with negative refractive index

We've got next-to-invisible objects and cameras with ridiculously large sensors, and thanks to a team of brilliant researchers over in Germany, now we've got "an exotic material with a negative refractive index for visible light." Gunnar Dolling and his colleagues at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany have created a metamaterial with layers of silver sandwiching a thin sliver of nonconducting magnesium fluoride on a glass sheet, and once an array of square holes were etched in, his tests showed that the "structure had a negative refractive index of -0.6 for light with a wavelength of 780-nanometers," besting the previous record of 1,400-nanometers. While the scientific babble may not mean much to you, the long and short of it is that this discovery could "lead to further breakthroughs in invisibility cloaks, which could hide objects from the human eye" and make escaping your troubles quite a bit easier. Moreover, the technology could be used in "superlenses" to see details "finer than the wavelength of visible light," but Dolling is reportedly more interested in studying the effects of his discovery than attempting to build any mystical devices, which is probably for the good of mankind, anyway.

[Via Slashdot]

[bdarma @ Dec 20th 2006 4:38AM]

"lead to further breakthroughs in invisibility cloaks which could hide objects from the human eye,"

...every man dreams, right?

[Ertugrul Karademir @ Dec 20th 2006 8:29AM]

I think this is not a break thruogh in science since this very project was finished two years ago by a group of Greek and Turkish scientists (I know that because one of them was my physicist professor-Ekmel Ozbay) and was nominated and has won Descartes award from Royal Academy last year. So what the hell? See: http://www.ee.duke.edu/~drsmith/about_descartes.htm and http://www.nanotechnology.bilkent.edu.tr/research%20areas/metamaterials.htm

[Julian Bond @ Dec 20th 2006 12:09PM]

A negative refractive index means light travels though it faster than in a vacuum, yes? That's a good trick.

[Eric @ Dec 20th 2006 3:30PM]

Hasn't Engadget covered this story before? I just remember this article because it was really odd.

[Feep @ Dec 20th 2006 10:36PM]

I actually did some rudimentary research on metamaterials over at Penn State University. A negative index of refraction does NOT mean that light travels faster in it than a vacuum; that formula breaks down for things like this. The true formula is the square root of the permittivity of the material multiplied by the permeability. Either or both of these characteristics can be negative,and depending on the coordinates of the result on the real and imaginary axes, the material will display various characteristics.

Still, this research is fairly dated. Boo, Engadget.

[Nelg @ Dec 21st 2006 3:54AM]

780nm is not visible light: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/06/Srgbspectrum.png I have an IR-filter in my camera which lets through radiation beginning from 720, which is only a fraction of red light. The filter is totally black.
And what is "finer than the wavelength of visible light"? Ultraviolet? X-ray? I thought we covered those wavelengths already. Or did they mean with our eyes? Good luck to that.

[Jsmizzy @ Dec 21st 2006 12:31PM]

Is it me or doesn't it look like an ancient symbol from the Incas or the Myans???
Hmmmmmmm!!!

[nozzi_na_na @ Jan 1st 2007 9:16PM]

Invisibility cloaks? nobody has really thought about this have they.
I mean will the sheet of the metamaterial be hiding something behind it or will the sheild itself be invisible?

so as far as every mans dream goes... does this mean you walk into the ladies room cloaked in something that isnt there?

This may be the star trek age but the clingons havent arrived yet.

PS : Ive got a whole bag of stuff thats invisible that Im willing to sell.