The Future Is Now: The Invisibility Cloak Exists

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Fabricated "cloaking" structure

REUTERS/Jason Valentine

Ever wish you could make yourself vanish into thin air like Harry Potter?  Now that dream may not be far off after British scientists Thursday announced the invention of a film that can manipulate light and render invisible objects–bringing us one step closer to creating an invisibility cloak, reports the BBC.

As reported in the New Journal of Physics, the film is made out of polymer and silicon and bends light thanks to a tiny, nano-level structure. This allows light to flow around the object–rather like water that bends around a rock in a stream – as opposed to being absorbed by it. Flexible metamaterials like this have been made before, but only work for light of a color far beyond that which we see. Until now, the most striking demonstrations of invisibility have occurred for light waves with a much longer wavelength – a far redder color – than we can see. This is because it is simply easier to construct metamaterials with relatively large structures. (Read Are Harry Potter Fans Killing India’s Owls?)

Although the team of researchers are closer to unveiling an invisibility cloak, it’s still a way off. “It clearly isn’t an invisibility cloak yet – but it’s the right step toward that,” said Ortwin Hess, a physicist at Imperial College London.  He added that the next step would be to characterize the way that the material’s optical properties change as it is bent and folded. “Harry Potter has to wait still – that’s the huge goal,” he said. (See pictures of the Harry Potter theme park)