Nanocups brim with potential—Light-bending metamaterial could lead to superlenses, invisibility …

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=12297&SnID=1375936377

03/13/2009

CONTACT: Mike Williams
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Nanocups brim with potential

Light-bending metamaterial could lead to superlenses, invisibility cloaks

Researchers at Rice University have created a metamaterial that could light the way toward high-powered optics, ultra-efficient solar cells and even cloaking devices.

Naomi Halas, an award-winning pioneer in nanophotonics, and graduate student Nikolay Mirin created a material that collects light from any direction and emits it in a single direction. The material uses very tiny, cup-shaped particles called nanocups.

In a paper in the February issue of the journal Nano Letters, co-authors Halas and Mirin explain how they isolated nanocups to create light-bending nanoparticles.

…

Because nanocup ensembles can focus light in a specific direction no matter where the incident light is coming, they make pretty good candidates for, say, thermal solar power. A solar panel that doesn't have to track the sun yet focuses light into a beam that's always on target would save a lot of money on machinery.

Solar-generated power of all kinds would benefit, said Halas. "In solar cells, about 80 percent of the light passes right through the device. And there's a huge amount of interest in making cells as thin as possible for many reasons."

…

The paper can be found at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl900208z

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Won't it be fun when cops are invisible and grab you (or taser you) out of nowhere?

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Yeah, well, personally, I'll believe the invisibility cloak when I err… don't see it

However, the lens effect sounds good to me!

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Yeah, I'm skeptical, too.

But if it's true, I think it will be one of the worst things that ever happened to us.

[Uben]

4. There is already a cloaking device......

....and it works great! It is obviously being used on Wall Street cuz I had a shitwad of money and now it is nowhere to be found!
Proof positive. I think they used it on that $8 billion pallet of cash in Iraq, too! First known use was on the budget surplus Clinton left Bush. Poof!

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Hmmm ... maybe post in Science?

I know, no one ever reads Science ... :eyes: