'Metamaterial' May Be Cloaking Device

The new substance is a "metamaterial" that negatively refracts light. Metamaterials with this property raise the theoretical possibility that light could bend completely around an object, making it effectively invisible. Scientists are awed by the implications of metamaterials. "These materials would comprise a complete -- almost magical -- mastery over light," said David Schurig, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University, who did not participate in the new research. "They would enable not just invisibility cloaking, but arbitrary control over the richest information channel humans employ. One thing I know for sure, it will happen sometime between now and the technological singularity." Previous studies have led to mathematical models for cloaking devices, but much of the work remains on theoretical physicists' drawing boards because of manufacturing constraints. Schurig designed the first conceptual invisibility cloak. The new material, developed by a Princeton-based research team, is the next step in putting those models to work in the part of the spectrum we can see. The material operates in the infrared spectrum, which is between the lower frequency rays that cook hot dogs in your microwave and the higher frequency rays that allow you to see your food. Higher frequencies -- the ones we can see -- mean smaller wavelengths, and that means researchers have to miniaturize their already microscopic designs, a process at the bleeding edge of current technology. "An optical cloak could eventually be built that would work through the full range of frequencies," said Willie Padilla, a Boston College physics professor.