A group of researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona’s (UAB) Department of Physics has designed a device that makes objects invisible under certain light, and with very low frequency electromagnetic waves, making the interior magnetic field zero but leaving the exterior field intact.
In this manner the device theoretically acts as a cloak of invisibility, making the object completely undetectable to these waves.
The research is based on an initial idea from England’s Ben Wood and John Pendry (considered the father of metamaterials) and represents a step forward in the race to find systems that could achieve invisibility at visible light frequencies. It’s important to recall that visible light is only one part of the electromagnetic spectrum, with a range of very specific wave longitudes. The Spanish researchers have taken one more step in the search for definitive invisibility.
The difficulty of this challenge stems from the fact that visible light possesses a trajectory in an environment that is determined by its electrical and magnetic properties, and it was thought that these values could not be modified, which therefore made invisibility impossible. However, the discovery of these metamaterials opens a new field for overcoming the challenge of invisibility, as they exhibit properties that could divert light so that it is not absorbed or reflected.