New material promises radical advances in optical computing, invisibility cloaking

Researchers at Purdue University have created a new device to overcome fundamental obstacles in using new metamaterials for radical advances in optical computing, ultrapowerful microscopes and invisibility cloaks. The material developed by the University-based researchers is a perforated, fishnet-like film made of repeating layers of silver and aluminum oxide. The researchers fixed a portion of aluminum oxide between silver layers and replaced it with a gain medium to amplify light.

shalaev metamats

In a research based at the Birck Nanotechnology Center at the university's Discovery Park, the researchers have solved the major light lose and light absorption problem of the metamaterials by fixing dye between the two fishnet layers of silver, where the "local field" of light is far stronger than on the surface of the film, causing the gain medium to work 50 times more efficiently.

Researcher having been able to create materials with an index of refraction that's negative or between one and zero, have promised a range of potential breakthroughs in a new field called transformation optics. Possible applications include a planar hyperlens that could make optical microscopes 10 times more powerful and able to see objects as small as DNA; advanced sensors; new types of light concentrators for more efficient solar collectors; computers and consumer electronics that use light instead of electronic signals to process information; and a cloak of invisibility.

Via: PressRelease