Chinese Researchers Discover Method to Mass Produce "Invisibility Cloak" Metamaterials

Look out for mass-produced invisibility cloaks thanks to an entirely new way of designing and manufacturing them out of materials such as Teflon

When it comes to invisibility cloaks, one of the trickiest problems is how to make the things.

The materials of choice are known as metamaterials which are created by assembling a repeating pattern of structures that interact with the light they are designed to cloak. This kind of detailed assembly means that making metamaterials is an expensive and time-consuming process. What’s more, the resulting invisibility cloaks are never perfect

So physicists have begun to wonder if they can do just as well with other materials that are easier and simpler to make.

Their approach is entirely different to the theoretical light-bending mathematics physicists have used until now. This current approach works by attempting to steer electromagnetic fields around an object in a way that hides it. The necessary material must be able to repeat this kind of light distortion in real life.

The new approach is to create a computer model of the cloak in the form of a conventional material with fixed light bending properties.

link.