Once considered the only province of "Star Trek" or "Harry Potter", stealth technology can become a reality, using a specially designed material, according to a new study, when it is hit by an "invisible beam", it is possible to mask itself from other forms of light.
In theory, most "cloaks" work by smoothly guiding the sound waves around the object, so the waves fluctuate along their original tracks as if nothing could stop them.
Previous work has found that stealth devices that redirect other types of waves, such as sound waves, are also possible.
But researchers from the new study, from the University of Technology in Vienna, have developed a different strategy to make objects invisible --
Use invisible beams. [
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Stefan Rotter, a senior author of the study and theoretical physicist at the University of Technology in Vienna, said complex materials such as sugar are opaque because their disordered structure will disperse light in it more
"Light can go in and out of an object, but it will never go through the medium in a straight line," Rott said in a statement . ".
"Instead, it is scattered in all possible directions.
"Rott and his colleagues used their new technology and did not want to change the course of the waves.
"Our goal is to guide the original light through the object as if it did not exist at all.
It sounds strange, but it is indeed possible to use our special wave technology for certain materials.
The author, theoretical physicist of the University of Technology in Vienna, Andrei branderstall said in a statement.
This concept involves shooting a beam (such as a laser) from the top onto the material to fill it with energy.
This can change the properties of the material so that it is transparent to the light of other wavelengths coming in from the side.
"In order to achieve this, a beam with a completely correct pattern must be projected onto the material from above
Like standard video projectors, except for the much higher resolution, "Konstantinos Makris, the lead author of the study, said in a statement that he is now at the University of Crete, Greece.
The researchers say patterns projected onto objects that make them invisible must be exactly the same as the internal irregularities of items that normally scatter light.
"We want to make every object that is transparent must be illuminated with its own specific pattern, depending on the microscopic details of the internal scattering process," Rott said in a statement . ".
"The method we are developing now allows us to calculate the correct pattern of any arbitrary scattering medium.
"Rott and his colleagues are now experimenting to see if their ideas really work.
"We think it's easiest to experiment in acoustics," Rott told Live Science . ".
For example, a speaker can produce sound waves that make the tube "transparent" to other forms of sound ".
"Personally, the most surprising thing is that the concept works completely," Rott said . ".
"There may be more surprises when digging deep along these lines.
"In the end, similar studies can also be used up for experiments," he said.
The work could be applied in the telecom network, says Rott.
"However, it is clear that there is still a lot of work to be done from the basic research phase to the practical application phase to achieve this," Rott said . ".
The scientists introduced their findings in detail on the Internet.
In the journal Light: Science and application.
Original article about Live Science.