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Metamaterials

Towards invisibility in the visible

Nature Materials volume 8, pages 537–538 (2009)Cite this article

Ever since invisibility cloaking has left the realm of fiction and been demonstrated for microwave radiation, cloaking in the visible has been the aim. Having reached the near-infrared, we might be there soon.

The ability to render objects invisible to the human eye has captured our imagination for millennia. The first realizations of cloaking devices have been achieved already for microwave radiation1,2 and surface plasmons3. On page 568 of this issue, Jason Valentine and colleagues4, and a similar study to be published in Nature Photonics5, report on an invisibility cloak at near-infrared wavelengths. These studies represent a major step towards invisibility in the region where it matters: visible light.

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Figure 1: From fugu to flatfish.
Figure 2: Space transformation.

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  1. Ulf Leonhardt is in the School of Physics & Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, UK. ulf@st-andrews.ac.uk

    Ulf Leonhardt

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  1. Ulf Leonhardt
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Leonhardt, U. Towards invisibility in the visible. Nature Mater 8, 537–538 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2472

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2472

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