Optical materials have been stretched to the maximum limits of their abilities over the years, but now researchers say that it's time for another class of materials to take their place. Apparently, that class of materials will be nanoparticles, as they seem to have the ability to distort and bend light in ways that conventional reflective surfaces could never achieve. This has been further proven by Rice University researchers, who have used cup-shaped gold particles to distort light in a way they can control.

Detailing their research in the February 19th online edition of the journal Nano Letters, the team says that, under certain conditions, the gold nanoparticles behave in much the same way as antennas do. Furthermore, there are numerous optical effects that occur when light hits this type of structures. For instance, as far as metamaterials go, their internal structures are so small, that the spaces between their molecules are actually more reduced than the wavelength on which visible light travels.

This gives birth to numerous effects, some of which are totally unexpected. That's why metamaterials are currently being used to create the proverbial “invisibility cloak,” a device that could literally make everything underneath it invisible. And prototypes of this concept already exist. In this new research, scientists have directed light at the nanoparticle ensemble and have discovered that it was reflected both vertically (axially) and horizontally, from left to right (transversely).

“When we illuminated the nanocups, the transverse interaction exhibited a strong scattering resonance. We learned that the direction of the transverse resonant light scattering depends on the orientation of the cups, a property that has not been observed in studies of similar structures. In this line of research, many other types of nanoparticles and nanostructures can be designed to have this type of light-redirecting property,” Naomi Halas, a researcher at Rice University, shared for PhysOrg.

The gold nanocups exhibited very interesting properties, in that they seemed to reflect light in the direction their axis was pointing, and not in that of the cup, which would seem normal. This opens up numerous possibilities for the technology, especially in the design and development of solar panels. But perhaps the most important thing that will be done with this theory in the future will be the construction of optically-interconnected chips, which will be the foundation of the circuitry of the years to come.