Those who wear them become invisible to the naked eye, and recent movies have even shown them to vanish entire aircraft carriers in a blink of the eye.
Now, what was once fantasy and science fiction is being developed through real science in South Korea.
Researchers at Sogang University have unveiled new breakthroughs in meta-materials that could lead to true cloaking technology.
The South Korean scientists were able to create assymetric nanoparticles that could coat an object and give them special optical properties. By manipulating the wavelengths of incoming light, three dimensional objects are able to blend into their surroundings.
“In our recent published research, by comparing asymmetric and symmetric metal nanoparticles, we can expect excellent optical properties, which I think we can utilize in cloaks and similar stealth technology,” said Kang Tae-wook, professor of chemical and bimolecular engineering at Sogang University.
Lead researcher Kang Tae-wook hopes that the new innovative technology will also find its way into the bio-medical field. Kang says on a microscopic scale, the light-bending nanoparticles could be helpful in diagnosing diseases and treating cancer, through optical gene delivery and recognition.
The results of the research were published last month in the prestigious online nanoscience journal “Nano Letters.”
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reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com