Carpet cloaks bring invisibility to the optical world

April 29, 2009 | Source: The physics arXiv blog

Cornell University and UC Berkeley scientists have built cloaks that are essentially mirrors with a tiny bump in which an object can hide.

The bump is hidden by a pattern of tiny silicon nanopillars on the mirror surface that steers reflected light in a way that makes any bump look flat. So anything can be hidden beneath the bump without an observer realizing it is there.