Now you see it - 'Invisibility cloak' directs light away from eye

MSNBC - March 6, 2009, by Eric Bland

This illustration shows the basic design of a new 3D metamaterial, which is lined with gold nanocups that re-direct the flow of light hitting an object. When the light is gathered and aimed away from the viewer's eye, the object appears invisible. Naomi Halas, Rice University

Nanoantenna could eliminate one of the biggest costs for solar panels

Call it what you will — the world's first 3D nanoantenna or an invisibility cloak — but a new metamaterial created by Rice University scientists could hide objects from human sight.

Call it what you will — the world's first 3D nanoantenna or an invisibility cloak — but asight.

By creating perfectly aligned dimples in a material, the scientists channeled specific wavelengths of light from many directions into one uniform direction.

"This falls into the broad class of metamaterials that have useful and unusual properties, like cloaking," said Naomi Halas, Rice University scientist and co-author of a paper describing the material in Nano Letters. "In a broader picture, you could do some very interesting things with this metamaterial."

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