MATERIALS THAT CONTROLS THE WAY LIGHT BOUNCES OF IT....
Serdar Kocaman, an electrical engineering PhD candidate and Chee Wei Wong, associate professor of mechanical engineering, in collaboration with the scientists at the University college of London, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Institute of Microelectronics of Singapore have developed an optical nanostructure material that controls the way light bounces off it.
The researchers engineered a structure in which they etched tiny holes, creating a material known as a 'Phototonic Crystal', which behaves as though it has zero index-light can travel with an ultra-fast velocity in such kind of environment. The material, a coating no thicker than one-hundredth of the diameter of the strand of hair, has properties that DON'T OCCUR IN NATURE!
When light travels, it bends-in technical terms, it disperses and incurs 'phase', an oscillating curve that leaves a trail of information behind it. Those oscillations show an object's properties, such as shape and size, which can identify it. However, light hits this specially engineered material without leaving a trace.
"We can now control the flow of light, the fastest thing known to us. This can enable self-focusing light beams, highly directive antennas, and even potentially an approach to hide objects, at least in the small scale or a narrow band of frequencies," said Wong.
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