Letter abstract
Nature Materials 8, 568 - 571 (2009)
Published online: 29 April 2009 | doi:10.1038/nmat2461
Subject Category: Optical, photonic and optoelectronic materials
An optical cloak made of dielectrics
Jason Valentine1,3, Jensen Li1,3, Thomas Zentgraf1,3, Guy Bartal1 & Xiang Zhang1,2
Invisibility devices have captured the human imagination for many years. Recent theories have proposed schemes for cloaking devices using transformation optics and conformal mapping1, 2, 3, 4. Metamaterials5, 6, with spatially tailored properties, have provided the necessary medium by enabling precise control over the flow of electromagnetic waves. Using metamaterials, the first microwave cloaking has been achieved7 but the realization of cloaking at optical frequencies, a key step towards achieving actual invisibility, has remained elusive. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of optical cloaking. The optical 'carpet' cloak is designed using quasi-conformal mapping to conceal an object that is placed under a curved reflecting surface by imitating the reflection of a flat surface. The cloak consists only of isotropic dielectric materials, which enables broadband and low-loss invisibility at a wavelength range of 1,400–1,800 nm.
- NSF Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Material Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- These authors contributed equally to this work
Correspondence to: Xiang Zhang1,2 e-mail: xiang@berkeley.edu
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Metamaterials Towards invisibility in the visibleNature Materials News and Views (01 Jul 2009)
Metamaterials Loss as a route to transparencyNature Photonics News and Views (01 Feb 2009)
See all 12 matches for News And ViewsRESEARCH
Silicon nanostructure cloak operating at optical frequenciesNature Photonics Letter (01 Aug 2009)
Multiscale patterning of plasmonic metamaterialsNature Nanotechnology Letter (01 Sep 2007)
See all 47 matches for Research
