隐身材料

Cloaking materials

由于超构材料(metamaterials)的发现,隐身(cloaking)科学近年来取得了长足的发展.与军事上的隐形(stealth)所不同的是,隐身指的是将电磁波的散射在各个方向上都完全消除,从而实现神话故事或科幻小说中那种真正的全方位、全角度的"消失".隐身也因其重要的科学价值以及将对人类生活产生跨越式的改变而成为国际上的科研热点.除了隐身之外,科学家还证明了可以将物体变成任意的幻像,从而在光学上实现了孙悟空的"七十二变",这被称为幻像光学(illusion optics).未来,隐身和幻像光学的发展有望将人类的极限想象变为现实.文章介绍了作者在隐身和幻像领域里的一些工作.

There has been extensive development in the study of cloaking technology since the discovery of metamaterials. Different from ＂stealth＂ technology used for military purposes, cloaking refers to a total annihilation of the scattering of electromagnetic waves in all directions, and thus achieving invisibility as depicted in mythology and sci-fiction. Because of its scientific importance and the possible dramatic impact on technology, cloaking has become a hot research topic. Moreover, illusion optics has also been demon- strated by means of which scientists can make an object ＂look like＂ anything else. The development of cloaking and illusion optics could turn human imagination to reality in the future. Some of our works in cloaking and illusion optics are reviewed here.