Researchers develop meta material with super-high refractive properties

Scientists said Thursday they have developed a meta material with a super-high refractive index that can open new horizons for high-definition imaging systems and ultra small optical components.

The research team led by Min Bum-ki, a mechanical engineering professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said the artificially created meta material has been tested to have a refractive index of 38.6, the highest number confirmed so far by the scientific community.

A refractive index measures the effect a material has on the speed and direction of light traveling through an object vis-a-vis when it is traveling through a vacuum. An index reading of 38.6 means light can travel 38.6 times faster in a vacuum compared to a newly developed substance.

The material also has very high polarizability that can help engineers to better control electromagnetic and light waves, while at the same time having very weak diamagnetism, the property of a material that causes it to create a magnetic field in opposition to an externally applied magnetic field.

"Such properties can allow engineers to someday make very high-definition imaging systems that can have wide applications," the KAIST scientist said. "The meta material could be developed to manufacture very compact optical components."

The latest development, achieved in cooperation with researchers from the state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute and Seoul National University, has been published as a "News and Views" article in the latest issue of Nature magazine. (Yonhap)