Scientists get one step closer to building an invisibility cloak

Scientists with the Queen Mary University of London have made a material that makes protruding areas, "appear flat to electromagnetic waves."

A press release by the university notes, "The effect is to 'cloak' the object: such a structure can hide an object that would ordinarily have caused the wave to be scattered..."

The specific item used in the trials was a tennis ball-size object coated with a nanocomposite medium.

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Yan Hao, the lead author of the study, comments, "We demonstrated a practical possibility to use nanocomposites to control surface wave propagation through advanced additive manufacturing. Perhaps most importantly, the approach used can be applied to other physical phenomena that are described by wave equations, such as acoustics. For this reason, we believe that this work has a great industrial impact."

Antennae are among the items that could benefit from the development, as it would greatly expand options for their attachment.