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For the first time ever, researchers have developed a material with a negative refractive index for visible light. Physicists designed a silver-based, mesh-like material.
The discovery marks a significant step forward from existing metamaterials that operate in the microwave or far infrared – but still invisible –regions of the spectrum. Those materials, announced this past summer, were heralded as the first step in creating an invisibility cloak.
Metamaterials make it possible to refract light at a negative angle. This backward-bending characteristic provides scientists the ability to control light similar to the way they use semiconductors to control electricity, which opens a wide range of potential applications.
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