Everyone of us was astonished by seeing the camouflage effect in the James bond movie. It was a brilliance of visual effects. But ever wondered if it works for real. Yes!!! The scientists are on the verge of the discovery of it.
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The mechanism has now been developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas. They were able to detect a unique characteristic in carbon nano-tubes with a kind of mirage effect which helps to switch on and turn off invisibility on demand .Scientists have created a working cloaking device that not only takes advantage of one of nature’s most bizarre phenomenon, but also boasts unique features. It has an ‘on and off’ switch and is best used underwater.
The Carbon Nano Tubes (CNT) exploits the mirage effect for this mechanism .It has ability to conduct heat and transfer it to surrounding areas that makes them an ideal material to exploit the so-called “mirage effect”.
Water on the highway and desert is frequently seen it is because of the Mirage effect (an optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky) .Due to this the observer sees a pool of water in the ground .this occurs because the air near the ground is a lot warmer than the air higher up, causing light rays to bend upward towards the viewer’s eye rather than bounce off the surface.This results in an image of the sky appearing on the ground which the viewer perceives as water actually reflecting the sky; the brain sees this as a more likely occurrence.
CNT’s which are highly aligned can be easily heated to a higher temperature by electrical stimulation .They have ability to transfer the heat to the surroundings causing a steep temperature gradient,this causes the light rays to bend away from the object concealed behind the device, making it appear invisible.
In the video below the CNT’s are pushed inside a transparent sheet .These carbon sheets are wrapped into cylinders and are made into one atom thick layer. The device is able to rapidly raise the temperature of water that is filled in around it. This causes the mirage effect to conceal the object on the other side, and that too at a very fast rate.
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