Muggle boffins try on first invisibility cloak

US scientists claims to have demonstrated the world's first invisibility cloak

Forget Harry Potter. A team of US scientists claims to have demonstrated the world's first working "invisibility cloak".

However, the boffins from Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering in North Carolina explained that the cloak deflects microwave beams, rather than visible light, so it will not make objects invisible to the human eye.

But the cloak will deflect microwaves around the "hidden" object inside with little distortion, making it appear almost as if nothing were there at all.

Such coverings that can render objects effectively invisible to microwaves could have a variety of wireless communications or radar applications, according to the researchers.

The scientists manufactured the cloak using artificial composite " metamaterials" arranged in a series of concentric circles that confer specific electromagnetic properties.

The cloak represents "one of the most elaborate metamaterial structures yet designed and produced", the scientists said.

It also represents the most comprehensive approach to invisibility yet realised, with the potential to hide objects of any size or material property.

"By incorporating complex material properties, our cloak allows a concealed volume, plus the cloak, to appear to have properties similar to free space when viewed externally," said David Smith, Augustine Scholar and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke.

"The cloak reduces both an object's reflection and its shadow, either of which would enable its detection."