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MacBook and ultrabook competition will heat up when (and if) Windows 8 debuts in 2012, inspiring some novel laptop designs.

Progress of metamaterials in nanotechnologies has made the invisibility cloak, a subject of mythology and science fiction, become reality: Light waves can be guided around an object to be hidden, in such a way that this object appears to be non-existent. This concept applied to electromagnetic light waves may also be transferred to other types of waves, such as sound waves. Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now succeeded in demonstrating for the first time an invisibility cloak for elastic waves. Such waves also occur in strings of a guitar or drum membranes.

It is as if Harry Potter had a cloak that also makes him unhearable. “Maybe a place of peace and quiet in the Christmas season,” say the KIT researchers, who succeeded in transferring the concepts underlying the optical invisibility cloak to acoustic waves in a plate.

“The key to controlling waves is to specifically influence their local speed as a function of the ‘running direction’ of the wave,” says Dr. Nicolas Stenger from the Institute of Applied Physics (AP). In his experiment, he used a smartly microstructured material composed of two polymers: A soft and a hard plastic in a thin plate. The vibrations of this plate are in the range of acoustic frequencies, that is some 100 Hz, and can be observed directly from above. The scientists found that the sound waves are guided around a circular area in the millimeter-thin plate in such a way that vibrations can neither enter nor leave this area. “Contrary to other known noise protection measures, the sound waves are neither absorbed nor reflected,” says Professor Martin Wegener from the Institute of Applied Physics and coordinator of the DFG Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) at KIT. “It is as if nothing was there.” Both physicists and Professor Martin Wilhelm from the KIT Institute for Chemical Technology and Polymer Chemistry have now published their results in the journal “Physical Review Letters.”

“Circling“ around the silent center: Design (top) and intermediate step of production (bottom) of the elastic invisibility cloak. (Graphics: AP, KIT)

The scientists explain their idea by the following story: A city, in the shape of a circle, suffers from noisy car traffic through its center. Finally, the mayor has the idea to introduce a speed limit for cars that drive directly towards the city: The closer the cars come to the city area, the slower they have to drive. At the same time, the mayor orders to build circular roads around the city, on which the cars are allowed to drive at higher speeds. The cars can approach the city, drive around it, and leave it in the same direction in the end. The time required corresponds to the time needed without the city. From outside, it appears as if the city was not there. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is a public corporation according to the legislation of the state of Baden-Württemberg. It fulfills the mission of a university and the mission of a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT focuses on a knowledge triangle that links the tasks of research, teaching, and innovation. le, 20.12.2011 For further information, please contact: Margarete Lehné Presse, Kommunikation und Marketing Phone: +49 721 608-48121 Fax: +49 721 608-45681 margarete lehne∂kit edu Contact: Monika Landgraf Chief Press Officer Phone: +49 721 608-47414, Fax: +49 721 608-43658 e-mail

Russia, South Korea and Singapore signed a cooperation deal on developing nanotechnology Thursday.A memorandum of understanding signed Thursday on the sidelines of the 2011 St.

An important milestone in the development of nanotechnology leading to atomically precise manufacturing is the development of artificial molecular machines that can control molecular transformations.

We may be able to see through glass, water and air, but not packing paper, plastic or cardboard. What remains hidden from the human eye is made visible by a new millimeter-wave sensor: unlike x-ray scanners, it can see through non-transparent materials without sending out harmful rays.

Has the packet been properly filled? Are there impurities in the chocolate? Have the plastic seams been welded correctly? Is there a knife hidden in the parcel? Answers to all these questions are provided by SAMMI, short for Stand Alone MilliMeter wave Imager. The millimeter-wave sensor is able to see through all non-transparent materials. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR in Wachtberg have developed the device, whichat 50 centimeters wide and 32 centimeters high is no larger than a compact laser printer. SAMMI can happily deal with all non-metallic materials.

“The system detects wooden splinters lurking in diapers, air pockets in plastic, breaks in bars of marzipan, and foreign bodies in foodstuffs. It can even detect and monitor the dehydration process in plants and how severely they have been stressed by drought,” says Dr. Helmut Essen, head of the FHR’s millimeter-wave radar and high-frequency sensors department. This makes the scanner extremely versatile – it’s just as suitable for industrial product and quality control as for analyzing materials in the laboratory. Because the system can detect dangerous substances such as explosive powder hidden in letters, vulnerable people such as politicians or freight handlers can be protected by millimeter-wave radar.

The millimeter-wave sensor can look through all non-transparent, non-metallic materials. © Fraunhofer FHR

SAMMI’s most striking feature is its ability to pick out the smallest differences in materials – differences that are invisible to x-rays. SAMMI can for example differentiate between the different fillings of chocolates, or between rubber composites that have similar or identical absorption qualities. Another advantage is that the scanner doesn’t employ ionizing radiation, which can damage health. It is also low-maintenance, not requiring the regular checks necessary with x-ray tubes. But how does SAMMI work? Inside the system’s housing, there is both a transmitting and a receiving antenna on each of two opposing rotating plates. A conveyor belt transports the sample – perhaps a package whose contents are unknown – between the antennae, while these send electromagnetic waves in a high frequency of 78 GHz.

Different areas of the sample absorb the signal to different degrees, leading the varying material composition across a sample to show up in distinguishable contrast. “Basically we examine the scanned objects for dissimilarities,” explains Essen. The content of the sample appears in real time on the scanner’s fold-out display. If the package contains a knife, even the grain of the handle is discernible. If the handle is hollow, the millimeter-wave sensor would show that, too. The device scans an area of 30 x 30 centimeters in just 60 seconds.

Our system can be operated without safety precautions or safety instructions, and since it weighs just 20 kilograms it’s eminently portable. It can also be adjusted to various measuring frequencies,” the scientist points out. In future, the researchers aim to “upgrade” the system for terahertz frequencies of 2 THz. “Then we’ll be in a position not just to detect different structures but also to establish which type of plastic a product is made from. That’s not possible at the moment,” says Dr. Essen.

At present, SAMMI is only suitable for spot checks. However, the FHR researchers are working on adapting the millimeter-wave sensor for industrial assembly lines for the fast, automatic inspection of goods. They envision mounting a line of sensors over the conveyor belt, so that in future products can be scanned at a speed of up to six meters per second.

TEXT CREDIT: fraunhofer.de Contact: Dr. Helmut Essen Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR Neuenahrer Str. 20 53343 Wachtberg, Germany Phone +49 228 9435-249. Send E-Mail

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Single-sheet graphene dispersion when substantially spaced apart in liquid cells or solid film matrices can exhibit novel excited state absorption mechanism that can provide highly effective broadband optical limiting well below the onset of microbubble or microplasma formation.