Abstract

An invisibility device should guide light around an object as if nothing were there, regardless of where the light comes from. Ideal invisibility devices are impossible, owing to the wave nature of light. This study develops a general recipe for the design of media that create perfect invisibility within the accuracy of geometrical optics. The imperfections of invisibility can be made arbitrarily small to hide objects that are much larger than the wavelength. With the use of modern metamaterials, practical demonstrations of such devices may be possible. The method developed here can also be applied to escape detection by other electromagnetic waves or sound.

Keywords

InvisibilityMetamaterialOpticsPhysicsWavelengthIdeal (ethics)Conformal mapMetamaterial cloakingRayComputer scienceMathematicsGeometryPhilosophyEpistemology

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Publication Info

Year
2006
Type
article
Volume
312
Issue
5781
Pages
1777-1780
Citations
3910
Access
Closed

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Cite This

Ulf Leonhardt (2006). Optical Conformal Mapping. Science , 312 (5781) , 1777-1780. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1126493

Identifiers

DOI
10.1126/science.1126493