Achieving invisibility is no longer a matter of science fiction. Engineers from the Universities of Stanford and Pennsylvania (USA) have created an invisible layer of silicon and gold using the technology of ' plasmonic camouflage '. The new device will serve, among other things, to improve the quality of photographs from digital cameras and other advanced imaging systems.
The vision mechanism is simple: light rays bounce off an object and scatter in other directions, allowing our eyes to detect it. Plasmon camouflage modifies the geometry of materials in such a way that the light that falls on them cancels each other out and the device, made up of silicon cables covered with a thin layer of gold, becomes invisible.
Beyond mere curiosity, this invention will have multiple applications, the scientists report in the article published in the journal Nature Photonics. For example, plasmon-camouflaged pixels can be incorporated into digital cameras or medical imaging systems, reducing blurring caused by crosstalk between neighboring pixels, resulting in quality photos and sharper medical images.
