Minuscule magic: The invisibility cloak is real, but it only comes in size XXXXXXS
It works by manipulating light, changing how light waves bounce off an object so that it cannot be detected by the eye.
A tiny invisibility cloak has been invented by US scientists who are edging ever-closer to a real version of what has until now been a staple of science fiction, researchers said.
The cloak, described in the journal Science on Thursday, is microscopic in size but could conceivably be scaled up in the future, according to physicists at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley.
It works by manipulating light, changing how light waves bounce off an object so that it cannot be detected by the eye.
“This is the first time a 3D object of arbitrary shape has been cloaked from visible light,” said lead author Xiang Zhang, director of Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division.
“Our ultra-thin cloak now looks like a coat. It is easy to design and implement, and is potentially scalable for hiding macroscopic objects.”
Using tiny gold fibres known as nanoantennas, researchers made a cloak that is 80 nanometres in thickness and can wrap around a three-dimensional object about the size of a few biological cells.