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Written by Astroman
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Monday, 25 April 2005 |
Andrea Alu and Nader Engheta of the University of Pennsylvania have found a way to create a “plasmonic cover”, a self-contained structure that can be used to make objects nearly invisible. They considered the principle that we see objects by sensing light bouncing off them, and reasoned that if you reduce an object’s light scattering and ensure it doesn’t absorb any light, the object will become invisible. Plasmons, waves of electron density caused by the rhythmic movement of electrons on the surface of a metal, could be made to form a screen that effectively cancels light scattering. Each plasmonic cover would have to be tuned to the object it is meant to hide, and would only work for a specific wavelength of light.
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