Jul 16, 2011
Metamaterials have a lot of potential future applications, but only one of them really gets our geeky senses tingling: invisibility cloaks. Previous theoretical examples we've seen were built upon rigid silicon substrates, meaning they'd be about as comfortable to wear as a motherboard jacket with ISA sleeves. But, a new material at the University of St. Andrews has been created that offers similar light-bending properties in a flexible package, crafted by the formation of a membrane upon a release layer, etching microscopic gold bars upon it, and then removing the release layer to have just the blingy membrane left...