Experimental Demonstration of Optical Cloaking

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19H02624
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 30020:Optical engineering and photon science-related
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Kajikawa Kotaro 東京工業大学, 工学院, 教授 (10214305)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 下条 雅幸 芝浦工業大学, 工学部, 教授 (00242313)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: メタマテリアル / クローキング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Cloaking is an optical technique to make an object invisible by coating it with a specific medium.　We have succeeded in experimentally demonstrating cloaking at optical frequencies that have only been discussed theoretically and computationally. Specifically, they performed theoretical calculations and experiments on the structure of silver nanowires (0.11 micrometer in diameter and 20 micrometers in length) coated with molybdenum oxide as a cloaking medium and found that when coated with a 0.045-micrometer-thick molybdenum oxide, cloaking was achieved for TM polarization, and that light scattering is virtually eliminated.

Free Research Field

光機能性材料

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

クローキングとは、物体(対象物)を特定の媒質で覆うことによりそれを不可視化する光学技術であり、これまで理論と計算でしか議論されてこなかった光学周波数でのクローキングを実験で実証することに成功した。金属や誘電体、半導体の円柱状のワイヤーを不可視化できるため、透明な電気配線材料や光導波路、光ファイバーなどが実現でき、光インターコネクションなどの集積回路の分野への波及効果が期待できる。