New Nanocoating Is Virtual Black Hole for Reflections

PhysOrg ^

[KoRn]

lol true!

Of course it would work great for low light conditions.

[beezdotcom]

Was my first thought. If someone was wearing a suit made of materials that reflected no light in wouldn't they effectively be invisible?

Not necessarily - does the light get absorbed, or does it re-radiate out the other side? If the latter, they would be completely visible - if the former, they would be incredibly black....

[mylife]

to augment post #14

MASINT,” or Measurement And Signatures INTelligence, encompasses a range of disciplines that exploit fundamental physical properties of objects of interest, the exploitation of which offers tremendous value for national security (military, homeland defense, and intelligence), as well as civil applications (such as agriculture, law enforcement). MASINT techniques include advanced radar, electrooptical/ infrared (including spectral), nuclear, geophysical (acoustic, seismic), and materials sensing, processing, and exploitation systems. These offer unique and critical information that is not otherwise available, or complements more broadly known techniques such as imaging (“pictures”), signals intelligence (“eavesdropping”), or human intelligence (“spies”).

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Wouldn't increasing reflection increase the brightness of LEDs? What's the article getting at about LEDs in the article?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Yep, they'd appear black; they'd absorb the light behind them.

[KoRn]

"Not necessarily - does the light get absorbed, or does it re-radiate out the other side?"

Good questions. I wouldn't know.

[beezdotcom]

Yep, they'd appear black; they'd absorb the light behind them.

Well, not necessarily. The stuff could just be completely transparent - not reflecting ANY light, but not absorbing it, either. Your body would still reflect the light that passed easily through the substance. Therefore, clothing made out of this stuff would look like - NAKEDNESS!

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

That either uses cameras, or (much less advanced currently--it has worked on microwaves, but the visible spectrum requires nanotech structures currently too small to make) nanotech properties which have light flowing around the object, similar to water in a river flowing around a stone in the river.

[mkjessup]

Well I'm convinced that my car must have an undocumented Romulan cloaking device that is still activated, because everytime I go ANYwhere, one idiot after another pulls out in front of me as if I wasn't even there, other fools don't realize I'm behind them and just sit on their ass instead of hitting the gas, I used to think it was just know-nothing drivers with little or no driving skills, but now I think it's that damn cloaking device, they simply CAN NOT SEE ME AT ALL.

But the police? They always seem to be able to see me. So that cloak isn't foolproof.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

microwaves are light (not visible, but still light).

[mylife]

Yes. the federales have the techniques L0L

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The thing is supposed to absorb a lot of light (almost all). That's why it could be useful for solar panels.

[mylife]

Yes, infrared is light too, and is invisible to the naked eye, its a much lower frequency than light.

[mylife]

Spectrum of Electromagnetic Radiation
Region Wavelength
(Angstroms) Wavelength
(centimeters) Frequency
(Hz) Energy
(eV)
Radio > 109 > 10 < 3 x 109 < 10-5
Microwave 109 - 106 10 - 0.01 3 x 109 - 3 x 1012 10-5 - 0.01
Infrared 106 - 7000 0.01 - 7 x 10-5 3 x 1012 - 4.3 x 1014 0.01 - 2
Visible 7000 - 4000 7 x 10-5 - 4 x 10-5 4.3 x 1014 - 7.5 x 1014 2 - 3
Ultraviolet 4000 - 10 4 x 10-5 - 10-7 7.5 x 1014 - 3 x 1017 3 - 103
X-Rays 10 - 0.1 10-7 - 10-9 3 x 1017 - 3 x 1019 103 - 105
Gamma Rays < 0.1 < 10-9 > 3 x 1019 > 105

[beezdotcom]

From the article:

The new material has almost the same refractive index as air

I would assume this means that it is incredibly transparent. Hence, it would make for good LEDs, since nearly ALL of the LED light would escape. It would improve solar cells, since a coating of this material (instead of glass) would allow far more light to reach the cell.

[Hell to pay]

Therefore, clothing made out of this stuff would look like - NAKEDNESS!

Or it might look like a guy on fire! Sounds like a hot suit!

[LibWhacker]

I wondered about that, too. Makes sense to me that the more you reflect, the brighter you'll be, not the other way around.

[AFreeBird]

Well, light is both a particle (photons) and a wave, so I'm not so sure it would work on microwaves. It's the photons that are reflected. Now if the tech can be incorporated into fabric and other surfaces, I could see it enhancing camouflage properties.

[mylife]

What Im trying to say is that fom low to high freq it is

radio
microwave
infrared
visible light
ultraviolet
xrays
gamma rays

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Aaaaah.

That makes sense. So this probably isn't as helpful for solar energy than a substance which absorbs almost all light would be?