Negative Refractive Index

[Clutch]

AMES, Iowa – For the first time ever, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have developed a material with a negative refractive index for visible light. Ames Laboratory senior physicist Costas Soukoulis, working with colleagues in Karlsruhe, Germany, designed a silver-based, mesh-like material that marks the latest advance in the rapidly evolving field of metamaterials, materials that could lead to a wide range of new applications as varied as ultrahigh-resolution imaging systems and cloaking devices.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/200...10407.php?light (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/dl-mft010407.php?light)

Found this kinda interesting, but I don't know a damn thing about it.

[Qwerty Dvorak]

This is actually incredibly interesting. As I understand it, it allows such a material to exhibit properties similar to reflection but with no loss of light, a total external reflection if you will. At least this is what I gather. Either way I think it's a major breakthrough. It's a shame that its main purpose is to develop in invisibility cloak, as I think it could probably serve better as a way of further improving solar power or something. Well maybe not that use in particular, but I for one can see invisibility cloaks becoming a weapon feared by the international community because of the military power they would give the inventors, and as such the development of left-handed materials would be vehemently opposed.

[ComradeRed]

It's a shame that its main purpose is to develop in invisibility cloak, as I think it could probably serve better as a way of further improving solar power or something. But I want one! :P

I'm actually curious to see the material, but if it has a negative refractive index it couldn't be used for solar power as I understand how solar cells work.

[Pawn Power]

Any pics?

The first thing I think of when I hear invisibility is the military. It would be very exspensive so they would be the only ones who could afford such technology at first. And clearly they would not use it for good purposes.

[Qwerty Dvorak]

Originally posted by CR+--> (CR)
I'm actually curious to see the material, but if it has a negative refractive index it couldn't be used for solar power as I understand how solar cells work.[/b]
So do I. Hence:

Me
Well maybe not that use in particular
Although they could be used to harness light more efficiently.

[ichneumon]

i *think* this could be used to make a mirror that doesn't reverse images. which would be weird as hell, but not really useful. optical "semi-conductors" that can reflect light at varying angles, maybe too.

[piet11111]

Originally posted by Pawn [email protected] 05, 2007 09:14 pm
Any pics?

The first thing I think of when I hear invisibility is the military. It would be very exspensive so they would be the only ones who could afford such technology at first. And clearly they would not use it for good purposes.
true but if the military would have such things then there is a chance we might get our hands on it.

anyway if a true stealth system would be made then im certain it wont be very long until
there would be something to counter this.
would such a thing not show up as an extremely cold spot with infra red detectors ?

[Janus]

would such a thing not show up as an extremely cold spot with infra red detectors ?
Stealth technology is made to be less visible to such detection methods. It's not that hard to reduce one's infrared signature to observers; it's being done right now with stealth aircraft.

[piet11111]

Originally posted by [email protected] 12, 2007 12:27 am

would such a thing not show up as an extremely cold spot with infra red detectors ?
Stealth technology is made to be less visible to such detection methods. It's not that hard to reduce one's infrared signature to observers; it's being done right now with stealth aircraft.
i know but i meant that because of the method used would it not also prevent infra red from escaping ?
thus creating a very cold spot where the person with a "stealth-suit" appears like some ghostly figure when seen through infra red detectors ?

[Janus]

This is a negative refractive index for visible light so I don't think this technology is meant to deal with infrared. However, like I said, there is technology out there that can block IR signatures and which I would think would be added to this type of stealth system.

[razboz]

Can somone please explain in more detail exactly how this material might permit invisibility of some sort? From the (very) little i understand of physics these materials would allow us to make really shiny mirrors and some quite intensly sharp lenses.

Also at Janus, the team apparently already managed to make this material work in the Infrared and ultraviolet, it was just the visible spectrum that was bugging them. So if they make an invisibilty cloak it would probably work firs tin the infrared then in the visible.

[Janus]

Can somone please explain in more detail exactly how this material might permit invisibility of some sort? From the (very) little i understand of physics these materials would allow us to make really shiny mirrors and some quite intensly sharp lenses.
Metameterials, as discovered by John Pendry, can produce one of 3 properties: negative permitivity, negative permeability, or a material exhibiting both properties at the same time. These are the materials that can produce a negative index of refraction, materials with a photonic band gap, etc. and they are called metameterial because they are not really actual materials, but rather can be made up of conducting rods, split rings, etc.

Metamaterials cause the light that hits the material to bent around it and then continues on its way again as if the material isn't there.
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/10/5/16

[benjaminbarker]

This could have enormous applications in the an organised revolution! If we were to (hypothetically) stage a revolution, we would have a (hypothetically) superior force to those of the capitalists who couldn't see us. With this technology and the other neccessary resources, we may easily be able to (hypothetically) overthrow the United States and enstate our own government.

[Janus]

This could have enormous applications in the an organised revolution! If we were to (hypothetically) stage a revolution, we would have a (hypothetically) superior force to those of the capitalists who couldn't see us. With this technology and the other neccessary resources, we may easily be able to (hypothetically) overthrow the United States and enstate our own government.
Actually, the state military and the capitalists will possess this technology (probably in a more advanced form) before a worker's force. A revolution will most likely not rely on any type of technological superiority.