Invisibility cloak one step closer

WASHINGTON — Scientists have created two new types of materials that can bend light the wrong way, creating the first step toward an invisibility cloaking device.

One approach uses a type of fishnet of metal layers to reverse the direction of light, while another uses tiny silver wires, both at the nanoscale level.

Both are so-called metamaterials – artificially engineered structures that have properties not seen in nature, such as negative refractive index.

Though such an "invisibility cloak" for anything from people to tanks and ships is still many years away, the research has brought closer the idea that bending light around an object will conceal it. The work follows on from previous research which used microwaves for the same effect.

Xiang Zhang, the leader of the researchers, said: “In the case of invisibility cloaks or shields, the material would need to curve light waves completely around the object like a river flowing around a rock.” An observer looking at the cloaked object would then see light from behind it – making it seem to disappear, the Sunday Times reported.

Mr. Valentine said immediate applications might be superior optical devices, such as a microscope that could see a living virus.

“However, cloaking may be something that this material could be used for in the future. You'd have to wrap whatever you wanted to cloak in the material. It would just send light around. By sending light around the object that is to be cloaked, you don't see it.”

Romulans are noted for their use of disruptor weapons, photon torpedoes, plasma torpedoes, and their signature cloaking technology, as well as having ships that are powered by artificial singularities (due to the nature of these engines, once activated, there is no way to shut them down). In the 22nd Century, they displayed advanced holotechnology and telepresence.

They are well-known and feared for their extensive use of the Plasma Torpedo. This weapon uses super-charged plasma to annihilate the hulls of adversary ships. The Plasma Torpedo has the highest damage to charge ratio of the Alpha Quadrant powers. However, it also has a huge power drain on a Romulan vessel, requiring the ship to de-cloak first before firing. Also, the Plasma Torpedo has a limited range, requiring the ship to be in close proximity to its target.