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We don't have invisibility cloaks just yet, but scientists are making progress figuring out how to make one! Join us at this event to find out how researchers at the University of Exeter are developing metamaterials with impossible properties and applications that are out of this world!
Everyday "Impossible" Materials
Lauren Barr
(PhD Student, Metamaterials CDT)
Light travels at different speeds in different materials, and sometimes doesn’t enter a material at all. These light-matter interactions let us build a picture of the world around us. I’ll discuss the properties that determine how a material looks, then describe how we can create materials that have “impossible” properties. These meta-materials control light and other waves, hiding or disguising objects. Along the way, I’ll point out some meta-materials that we might come across every day.
Designing materials to control wave propagation: Reflection, refraction and invisibility.
Chris King
(PhD student, Metamaterials CDT)
The theory of wave propagation pervades many areas of physics, including electromagnetism, acoustics and quantum mechanics. Trying to understand how waves travel through different materials is therefore of significant interest to the physics community. In this talk, Chris will give an overview of some of some phenomena associated with waves, such as reflection, refraction and diffraction, and discuss some of his own research into designing materials which don’t reflect, a key ingredient in the quest for invisibility.
How to make a black hole
Dr Simon Horsley
(Senior Research Fellow)
I'm going to talk about parallels between Einstein's theory of gravity, and how light moves through transparent materials such as glass or water. Using these parallels I'll show that invisibility cloaks and table top black holes are not entirely the stuff of fiction.
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