14 DAY TRIAL // In a groundbreaking, new work, scientists at the FOM institute AMOLF, in the Netherlands, managed to use the magnetic field of light to power up an energy transfer between nanoelectromagnets. This has never been achieved before anywhere in the world, and the group is very excited about its success. In addition to breaking new frontiers in physics research, the team also managed to open the way for magnetic metamaterials, which are heralded as the main components in future invisibility cloaks. Such instruments already exist, but they are only made up of regular metamaterials.
Inside metamaterials, light waves take on weird, new paths, which can theoretically be harnessed in such a manner that photons are directed around an object, without being reflected by it. This would in all respects mean that the object is invisible. Such innovations have already been made in various portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, as for X-ray radiations. In addition to these applications, the new materials could also be used to create perfect lenses. These devices allow light to go beyond the diffraction limit, PhysOrg reports.
This limit refers to the fact that light cannot pass through openings that are smaller than half its wavelength. Over the past couple of years, a large number of breakthroughs were made in breaking this limitation, and metamaterials were almost always involved. What the AMOLF team did was basically create a new class of these materials. Researchers Ivana Sersic, Martin Frimmer, and Ewold Verhagen, together with team leader and Vidi laureat Femius Koenderink, published the results of their work in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Physical Review Letters.
The team relied on tiny structures known as “nano-rings” for their investigations. The U-shaped metal devices were subjected to the magnetic field of light, which proved to be extremely apt at pushing electrical charges back and forth. Current zips through the openings in the ring at nearly the speed of light, but alternates directions about 500 billion times per second. With this achievement, the team is now equipped to take on the difficult task of learning how to push light along arbitrary pathways, which could lead in time to the creation of 3D invisibility cloaks.