German scientists have created a three-dimensional "invisibility cloak" that can hide objects by bending light waves.
德國科學家克日研制出一種經由過程曲折光芒來隱蔽物體的三維“隱形大氅”。
The findings, published in the journal Science on Thursday, could in the future make it possible to make large objects invisible, but for now the researchers said they were not keen to speculate on possible applications.
這項創造為大型物體隱形攤平了途徑，但研討職員稱，今朝他們其實不想去預測大概的運用情勢。這一最新研討結果於上周四在《科學》期刊上揭櫫。
For now these...cloaking devices are just a beautiful and exciting benchmark to show what transformation optics can do, said Tolga Ergin of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
德國卡爾斯魯厄理工學院的研討職員托爾加·埃爾金說：“今朝，這類隱形大氅只是光學範疇一個‘冷艷’的開端，讓人們曉得轉換光學可以做些甚麽。”
Transformation optics use a class of materials called metamaterials that guide and control light.
轉換光學平日應用一種“超資料”來引誘和掌握光束。
In their study, Ergin and his colleagues used photonic crystals with a structure that looks like piles of wood to make an invisibility device, or cloak.
埃爾金及其同事在研討中應用了一種光子晶體來制作隱形大氅。這類光子晶體的構造看上去像成堆的木頭。
They used the cloak to conceal a small bump on a gold surface -- a bit like hiding a small object underneath a carpet and then making both the bump and the carpet invisible.
研討職員應用隱形大氅來掩飾黃金外面的一個小突出，其道理就猶如將一個小物體隱蔽在地毯下，然後再使這個突出和地毯都隱形。
The "cloak" was composed of special lenses that work by partially bending light waves to suppress the light scattering from the bump.
這個“大氅”由特別透鏡構成，它經由過程部門曲折可見光芒來克制突出發出的光。
This is very exciting, because mankind has always thought about being invisible or having invisibility cloaks, Ergin told the reporters in a telephone interview. "This is the first proof of principle. It shows that the technique works."
埃爾金在接收一個手機采訪時說：“這一創造非常使人沖動，由於人類一向都想隱形或具有隱形大氅。這是咱們的首個隱形樣本，看來這一技巧是可行的。”
He added, however, that it would be many years before anything as large as a person, car or tank could be made to disappear with this technique.
但他以為，應用上述技巧令人、汽車、坦克等大型物體隱形尚需光陰。
There have been proposals in the field of transformation optics for different devices like beam concentrators, beam shifters, super antennas which concentrate light into one point from all directions, and much, much more, he said.
他說：“轉換光學範疇曾湧現過各類有關光學裝備的發起，如波束會合器、波束移位器和可未來自多個偏向的光會合於一點的超等天線等等。”
It is really hard to say what the future will bring, but the field is definitely very broad and the possibilities are very large.
“很難說未來還會有甚麽創造，但轉換光學絕對是個規模廣、充斥無窮大概的範疇。”
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