Invisibility Cloak Created With 3D-Printers

Yaroslav Urzhumov shows the invisibility cloak created by a 3D-printer. (PHOTO: Duke University Photography)

Duke University researchers are developing a plastic invisibility cloak that can hide 3D objects from microwaves in their natural environment. 

Yaroslav Urzhumov, an assistant research professor in computer engineering Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, and his research team created the cloak using a standard 3D printer, which took between three to seven hours to print. Urzhumov used algorithms to determine the location, size and shape of the holes in the micrometer-thick cloak, helping to deflect microwave beams. 

"The design of the cloak eliminates the 'shadow' that would be cast, and suppresses the scattering from the object that would be expected," said Urzhumov in a statement. "In effect, the bright, highly reflective object, like a metal cylinder, is made invisible. The microwaves are carefully guided by a thin dielectric shell and then re-radiated back into free space on the shadow side of the cloak." 

Duke researchers believe sometime in the near future they will be able to reflect higher wavelengths, such as visible light.

"We believe this approach is a way towards optical cloaking, including visible and infrared," Urzhumov said. "And nanotechnology is available to make these cloaks from transparent polymers or glass. The properties of transparent polymers and glasses are not that different from what we have in our polymer at microwave frequencies." 

Urzhumov also said that their technique should also help create larger objects without the use of a 3D-printer.

"Computer simulations make me believe that it is possible to create a similar polymer-based cloaking layer as thin as one inch wrapped around a massive object several meters in diameter," he said. "I have run some simulations that seem to confirm this point." 

In recent weeks, news of the world's first 3D-printed handgun and a bionic ear designed by researchers at Princeton University have also made headlines.

Researchers published their finds in journal Optics Letters and said that anyone using a 3D-printer could create the cloak.

A MakerBot Replicator 2 printer is now just $2,199.   

(SOURCE)