Moving forward with metamaterials
11 Dec 2009 by Evoluted New Media
Research into metamaterials for invisibility cloaking devices and sensitive security sensors has received a £4.9 million boost from the Leverhulme Trust.
Research into metamaterials for invisibility cloaking devices and sensitive security sensors has received a £4.9 million boost from the Leverhulme Trust.
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Prototype ‘cloak’ device, which hides objects from microwave radiation. This ‘cloaking device’ was made in 2006 by Sir John Pendry’s collaborators at Duke University, USA. Credit: Duke University. |
Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Southampton will use the grant to develop new applications for metamaterials that can bend, control and manipulate light and other kinds of electromagnetic waves.
“With metamaterials, we can devise completely new ways of controlling radiation, from visible light all the way down to terahertz radiation and beyond,” said project co-leader Professor Stefan Maier from Imperial’s department of physics. “We are aiming at structures that are easy to make, but that give us a level of control thought impossible until now,” he said.
Sir John Pendry from Imperial – also co-leader of the project - proposed in 2006 that metamaterials could be used to build an invisibility cloak. It would grab light as it approaches the cloak, forcing it to flow smoothly around it rather than striking it, rendering the object invisible to the naked eye.
“We’ve shown that an optical invisibility cloak is theoretically possible: the big challenge is building it,” Sir Pendry said, “This is just one of the many extremely exciting potential uses of metamaterials we’ll be exploring.”
It’s hoped the technology could be used to build a perfect lens microscope allowing scientists to view objects smaller than the wavelength of light being used, and in airport security to detect small quantities of poisons and explosives.
The grant allows Imperial College to recruit three top researchers, including a Leverhulme professor to join their teams in physics, materials science and optoelectronics, plus 10 PhD research students and numerous postdoctoral researchers. The University of Southampton will be able to recruit two Leverhulme Advanced Fellows.
Metamaterials is an emerging field between physics and material science, and relies on creating patterns on the surface of existing materials, especially metals. They have a carefully designed internal structure that interacts with light and other electromagnetic waves in unique ways. Being able to control radiation using materials in this way is a new scientific development, and opens up to potential for many applications in medicine, security, imaging, telecommunication and data processing.
