First black hole for light created on Earth

New Scientist ^ | 10/14/09 | Anil Ananthaswamy

[LibWhacker]

An electromagnetic "black holeMovie Camera" that sucks in surrounding light has been built for the first time.

The device, which works at microwave frequencies, may soon be extended to trap visible light, leading to an entirely new way of harvesting solar energy to generate electricity.

A theoretical design for a table-top black hole to trap light was proposed in a paper published earlier this year by Evgenii Narimanov and Alexander Kildishev of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Their idea was to mimic the properties of a cosmological black hole, whose intense gravity bends the surrounding space-time, causing any nearby matter or radiation to follow the warped space-time and spiral inwards.

[Billg64]

ice-9?

[Conan the Librarian]

The Darkton Theory finally has a practical use!

We need a Darkton emitter in every house.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

This is a superior method of focusing sunlight than an array of mirrors because?

[The Sons of Liberty]

There is a black hole for your money at the capitol, and another for truth at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington D.C.

[ClearCase_guy]

Oh Jeez. Now he’ll win the Nobel Prize for Physics too.

[mamelukesabre]

So does this thing actually bend light towards it? or is it merely trapping the light that happens to touch it? seems to me it would be impossible for this thing to actually bend light towards it. I’m not so sure of the usefulness of this invention.

[Pontiac]

At the point where the shell meets the core, the permittivity of the ring must match that of the core, so that light is absorbed rather than reflected.

Permittivity?

That is a new one on me.

Someone is going to have to explain that to me.

[steve86]

"This is a superior method of focusing sunlight than an array of mirrors because?"

Such a device could be used to harvest solar energy in places where the light is too diffuse for mirrors to concentrate it onto a solar cell. An optical black hole would suck it all in and direct it at a solar cell sitting at the core. "If that works, you will no longer require these huge parabolic mirrors to collect light," says Narimanov.

Sucks it in from all over Kingdom-come. Instant black-out for the universe.

[MHGinTN]

Invisibility cloaking

[mamelukesabre]

LOL

apparently they havn’t got it working 100% just yet then.

[The Comedian]

[mamelukesabre]

How does turning something dark make it invisible? Only in darkness would that work as invisibility. And then you don’t need it.

[MHGinTN]

Light comes to an object and light leaves an object to be sensed by receptors. If you can bend light to prevent it leaving, you can bend light to make it show what is behind an object rather than revealing the object. In a night sky, prevenmting electromagnetic reflection makes something disappear as it flies over, except for blotting out star background.

[envisio]

Maybe I'm naive and simple but I don't I don't think we should be messing around with stuff like this to start with.

[Lazamataz]

This can also be used to generate camoflauge fields.

[Westlander]

[DannyTN]

"I've got a portable hole."

[mowowie]

Sounds like an other perpetual motion machine.

[Pontiac]

I read the entire article and what they describing does not sound like a Black Hole to me.

The article says that the device converts light to heat. My understanding of a Black Hole is that it converts light to mass or X-rays.

To me what they are describing is a frenzel lens for microwaves.

[mamelukesabre]

Or you can just paint it black. Same thing. I see black stuff all the time. It’s not invisible. Except in the absence of light, and then everything is invisible.

[Old Professer]

You don’t do a lot of dating, do you?

[Pontiac]

Not since I got married.

The wife doesn’t like it when I do.

[KoRn]

Somebody better stop this!!

THEY ARE GONNA DESTROY THE PLANET!!!!!

Minorities and the homeless will be most affected....

[Blood of Tyrants]

Mirrors merely reflect light. This device actually captures it.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

You can concentrate a helluva lot of light with mirrors. Ask Archemides. There was actually a French solar plant where the U.S. tested components for resistance to nuclear blast effects, “thermal shock”. They rigged the focal point with a fast shutter and than, wham, opened it up for a couple of seconds to see how the unit under test survived the blast.

Another post pointed out the this “draws in light from space”. Basically a graviational lens is just a lens, albeit lossless. Reflective/refractive optics don’t get me excited, even if it’s refraction based on < hushed and awed tones> General Relativity.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I think that the advantage is the physical size. Also you would not have the problems associated with dirty, fragile mirrors which have to be moved periodically for optimum light reflection.

[Neidermeyer]

So when do we get free 3-D / 4-D porn on our televisions from this?

[SunkenCiv]

The device, which works at microwave frequencies, may soon be extended to trap visible light, leading to an entirely new way of harvesting solar energy to generate electricity.

Uh, yah. :')

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[ConservativeMind]

Nothing is reflected or poorly absorbed. All the light is trapped for 100% use.

[allmost]

A theoretical design for a table-top black hole to trap light was proposed in a paper published earlier this year by Evgenii Narimanov and Alexander Kildishev of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

sweet

[arthurus]

And then...?

[arthurus]

Can you then keep it in a bottle in the refrigerator?

[SuperLuminal]

"So does this thing actually bend light towards it? "

"steering"or "bouncing" or "continuously reflecting" might be better descriptors...

But then, that wouldn't sound as impressive when begging for the next grant-renewal, grant, or other funding...