Cloaking research advances

Metamaterials can be used to form cloaking structures that can bend electromagnetic waves, such as light, around an object. Although entering the realms of fantasy, on a more basic level, this also means that static impeding mobile communications signals can ‘disappear’ and create clearer signals. David Smith from Duke University in North Carolina has been working on metamaterials since 2006. However, the new material is easier to make and has a far greater bandwidth. It consists of over 10,000 individual pieces of fibreglass arranged in parallel rows on a circuit board. In tests, Smith aimed microwaves through the new cloaking material at a bump on a flat mirror surface. This prevented the microwave beams from being scattered and made the surface appear flat. Smith explained that cloaking can occur anywhere on the electromagnetic spectrum and that although the goal was not to make something visible disappear, the latest structure “‘does show clearly there is a potential for cloaking – in the science fiction sense – to become science fact at some point.”