Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak Is Almost A Reality Now
Who will refuse to own an invisibility cloak like the one we saw in
Harry Potter movies or like the one we saw in star trek series? Reason
for why you need an invisibility cloak may be anything ” to enjoy your
favorite shows at free of cost or to get escape from some dangerous
situations or to make fun of others”. Whatever it may be, the desire of
going invisible from the human eyes in a broad day light is an
inevitable thing in every one’s life. Real question here is ” Will it
really be possible to go invisible?”.
At present there are 3 technologies that have the potential to bring the
invisible cloak into reality. Let’s discuss all of these 3 technologies
briefly now.
2) MetaScreen Mantle Cloaking
3) Carbon Nanotube
1.Camouflage Technology
If you are ready to take up the Camouflage fashion then this is for you. This technology works in the way similar to the potter’s invisible cloak but the thing is ,it requires a very complicated arrangement. To go invisible in this way, the person who want to go invisible from the broad day light need to cloak a rain coat like a garment. Check out the video below to know how it looks.This raincoat like garment is made with the special kind of cloaking material. When the observer sees the person who is inside the cloaking, he sees only the object which are in the background. Yes, it is an altered image. It provides an image like you are seeing it through the see through glasses.
But to achieve this the observer should always stand in certain position. If he move forward or back ward ,our invisibility cloak will not work.
To become a harry potter’s invisibility cloak this garment need to be improved to give a 360 degree protection. Any how the technology behind this cloak ( augmented reality) have more potential to bring the dream of invisibility into reality.
2)Metascreen Mantle Cloaking
Miniature version of the fun fictional Invisibility Cloak is finally invented by the researchers using the material called Metascreen. This metascreens have just micrometres thickness not even milli meters. Unlike other technologies which hides the objects from only 2 dimensions, it hides the wrapped up object from all 3 dimensions from all the positions of observers.
Copper tape (66 micrometer thickness ) is attached to a thin flexible polycarbonate film ( which is of 100 micro meters) in a kind of fishnet design. When this metascreen is used to wrap 18 Centimeter long cylindrical rod, it made the object go invisible from the microwaves. Here the frequency of microwaves is 3.6 GHz and above.
In fact, we can hide any asymmetrical objects by using this technique even in a natural environment and a broad day light.
How it works?
Until now researchers have used bulk matameterials which pose many challenges in practice. These Metamaterials are used to bend or divert the incoming micro waves around the object. This ultra thin metascreen technology supports the notion of invisibility is known as ” Mantle cloaking” in which scattered light from the cloak & cloaked object cancels out each other. Thus making the cloaked object invisible.
One of the main advantage of this mantle cloaking technology invisible cloak over all other is ” it is easy to manufacture and provides more comfort with its thin improved bandwidth.”
In theory, mantle cloak invisible cloak technology can be used even in the visible light. Above all, there are no difference between microwaves, infrared and visible light in physics. All these are just waves which oscillate at some different frequencies. When compare to the bulk materials , metascreen thin materials are quite easy to realize the visible frequencies.
On the flip side, even though it hides the object from the visible light, using this technology we can hide only the objects in the micro meter scale. Point to note here is 1µm= 0.001mm and our red blood width is 6 µm.
Reference : New Journal Of Physics (Gallery of physics research papers)
3) Carbon Nanotube Invisibility Cloak
One of the very hot research going in full swing in the field of Nano technology is ” Production of harry potter like invisibility cloak”. We all know the science behind the mirage effect right? This same concept is used to create an invisibility cloak using the Nano technology.Hot sand in the desert is the key here. In mirage effect the intensity of Air varies and it gives an appearance of pool water. We can see this mirage effect on the sea, road side or desert.
Recently an Israel-based nano company known as Nanoflight have successfully tested their nano enabled coating on a dummy missile. Surprisingly the dummy missile have disappeared from the radar.
How The Nano Coating Works?
When the radar waves emitted on the nano coating painted missile, it scatters the incoming light waves. So in back ,radar only gets the irregular bounced back waves which is not clear enough for the radar to figure out what the cloaked object.
This successful invention of nano enabled paint have opened the way for commercial success. This technology have the potential to use these materials on the battle field to hide the soldiers from the infrared and from the night-vision goggles.
Check out the video here to know the potential of carbon nano tube technology in the notion of invisibility.
On the flip side ,this nano tube invisibility cloak works only in the two dimensions. It also weight heavier that even a full grown man struggles to lag around. So this type of invisibility cloak can only be used to hide the large objects such as buildings and military tanks.
0 comments:
Post a Comment