Nanotechnology Now

Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors
Heifer International



Home > Press > The guiding of light: A new metamaterial device steers beams along complex pathways: Boston College discovery bends light around corners, along Eastern seaboard

Boston College researchers report developing a device that can bend light along complex pathways. An illustration shows a simulated electromagnetic wave propagation. Guided by a set of instructions delivered by the device, the wave curves around the profile of the eastern US while behaving as if traveling in a straight line.

Credit: Optics Express
Boston College researchers report developing a device that can bend light along complex pathways. An illustration shows a simulated electromagnetic wave propagation. Guided by a set of instructions delivered by the device, the wave curves around the profile of the eastern US while behaving as if traveling in a straight line.

Credit: Optics Express

Abstract:
Using a composite metamaterial to deliver a complex set of instructions to a beam of light, Boston College physicists have created a device to guide electromagnetic waves around objects such as the corner of a building or the profile of the eastern seaboard.

The guiding of light: A new metamaterial device steers beams along complex pathways: Boston College discovery bends light around corners, along Eastern seaboard

Boston, MA | Posted on August 1st, 2009

As directed by the researchers' novel device, these beams continue to behave as if traveling in a straight line. In one computer simulation, Assistant Professor of Physics Willie J. Padilla and researcher Nathan Landy revealed the device could steer a beam of light along the boundary of the US, stretching from Michigan to Maine, down the seaboard, around Florida and into the Louisiana bayou, the researchers report in the upcoming edition of the journal Optics Express.

The researchers accomplished their feat by developing a much more precise set of instructions, which create a grid-like roadmap capable of twisting and turning a beam of light around objects or space. Their discovery is an extension of earlier metamaterial "cloaking" techniques, which have conjured up images of the Harry Potter character disappearing beneath his invisibility cloak.

Padilla and Landy report developing a space-mapping technique that delivers greater precision and efficiency guiding light along pathways that previously were too complex to sustain - from 90-degree angles to the rugged coastal profile of Maine. Furthermore, they've built this new device using relatively common dielectric materials, such as silicon.

"Our method combines the novel effects of transformational optics with the practicality of dielectric construction," Padilla and Landy report. "We show that our structures are capable of guiding light in an almost arbitrary fashion over an unprecedented range of frequencies."

The discovery builds upon a decade-long revolution in electromagnetics brought about by the emergence of metamaterials. Constructed from artificial composites, metamaterials have exhibited effects such as directing light at a negative index of refraction.

Researchers have combined metamaterials with artificial optical devices - also known as transformational optics - to demonstrate the "invisibility cloak" effect, essentially directing light around a space and effectively masking its existence. In addition, other researchers have used a method known as quasi-conformal mapping and very complex metamaterials to issue a somewhat imprecise set of instructions that create another space-cloaking effect.

####

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
Ed Hayward

617-552-4826

Copyright © Boston College

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark:
Delicious Digg Newsvine Google Yahoo Reddit Magnoliacom Furl Facebook

Related News Press

News and information

Flexible electronics integrated with paper-thin structure for use in space January 17th, 2025

‘Brand new physics’ for next generation spintronics: Physicists discover a unique quantum behavior that offers a new way to manipulate electron-spin and magnetization to push forward cutting-edge spintronic technologies, like computing that mimics the human brain January 17th, 2025

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

How a milk component could eliminate one of the biggest challenges in treating cancer and other disease, including rare diseases: Nebraska startup to use nanoparticles found in milk to target therapeutics to specific cells January 17th, 2025

Discoveries

Autonomous AI assistant to build nanostructures: An interdisciplinary research group at TU Graz is working on constructing logic circuits through the targeted arrangement of individual molecules: Artificial intelligence should speed up the process enormously January 17th, 2025

‘Brand new physics’ for next generation spintronics: Physicists discover a unique quantum behavior that offers a new way to manipulate electron-spin and magnetization to push forward cutting-edge spintronic technologies, like computing that mimics the human brain January 17th, 2025

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

How a milk component could eliminate one of the biggest challenges in treating cancer and other disease, including rare diseases: Nebraska startup to use nanoparticles found in milk to target therapeutics to specific cells January 17th, 2025

Materials/Metamaterials/Magnetoresistance

Chainmail-like material could be the future of armor: First 2D mechanically interlocked polymer exhibits exceptional flexibility and strength January 17th, 2025

Enhancing transverse thermoelectric conversion performance in magnetic materials with tilted structural design: A new approach to developing practical thermoelectric technologies December 13th, 2024

FSU researchers develop new methods to generate and improve magnetism of 2D materials December 13th, 2024

New material to make next generation of electronics faster and more efficient With the increase of new technology and artificial intelligence, the demand for efficient and powerful semiconductors continues to grow November 8th, 2024

Announcements

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

How a milk component could eliminate one of the biggest challenges in treating cancer and other disease, including rare diseases: Nebraska startup to use nanoparticles found in milk to target therapeutics to specific cells January 17th, 2025

The National Space Society Congratulates SpaceX on Starship’s 7th Test Flight: Latest Test of the Megarocket Hoped to Demonstrate a Number of New Technologies and Systems January 17th, 2025

The National Space Society Congratulates Blue Origin on the Inaugural Flight of New Glenn: The Heavy Lift Reusable Rocket Will Open New Frontiers and Provide Healthy Competition January 17th, 2025

Military

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

Chainmail-like material could be the future of armor: First 2D mechanically interlocked polymer exhibits exceptional flexibility and strength January 17th, 2025

Single atoms show their true color July 5th, 2024

NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024

Photonics/Optics/Lasers

Bringing the power of tabletop precision lasers for quantum science to the chip scale December 13th, 2024

Researchers succeed in controlling quantum states in a new energy range December 13th, 2024

Groundbreaking research unveils unified theory for optical singularities in photonic microstructures December 13th, 2024

UCF researcher discovers new technique for infrared “color” detection and imaging: The new specialized tunable detection and imaging technique for infrared photons surpasses present technology and may be a cost-effective method of capturing thermal imaging or night vision, medica December 13th, 2024

NanoNews-Digest
The latest news from around the world, FREE




  Premium Products
NanoNews-Custom
Only the news you want to read!
 Learn More
NanoStrategies
Full-service, expert consulting
 Learn More











ASP
Nanotechnology Now Featured Books




NNN

The Hunger Project