Science Focus
original post »The light-warping structures known as metamaterials have a new trick in their ever-expanding repertoire. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a silver, glass and chromium nanostructure that can all but stop visible light cold in one direction while giving it a pass in the other.* The device could someday play a role in optical information processing and in novel biosensing devices. Schematic of NIST’s one-way metamaterial. Forward travelling green light (left) or red light passes through the multilayered block and comes out at an angle due to diffraction off of grates on the surface of the material. Light travelling in the opposite direction (right) is almost completely filtered by the metamaterial and can’t pass through. Credit: Xu/NIST View hi-resolution image In recent years, scientists have designed nanostructured materials that allow microwave or infrared light to propagate in only one direction. Such structures hold potential for applications in optical communication—for instance, they could be integrated into photonic chips that split or combine signals carried by light waves. But, until now, no one had achieved one-way transmission of visible light, because existing devices could not be fabricated at scales small enough to manipulate visible light’s short wavelengths.
The post New metamaterial gives light a one-way ticket has been published on Technology Org.
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