a team of engineering students led by nanfang yu, assistant professor of applied physics at columbia university, discovered a new “phase-transition optical material” that controls light over a wider wavelength range and with larger modulation amplitude than current standards, according to a notice from the school’s website.

the new material could be used for infrared camoflauge. (wikimedia commons)

in addition to columbia, the team consisted of researchers from purdue, harvard, drexel, and brookhaven national laboratory. the team released its results on august 30.

according to the abstract, which was published in advanced materials:

“the electron-doping-induced phase transition of a prototypical perovskite smnio₃ induces a large and non-volatile optical-refractive-index change and has great potential for active-photonic-device applications. strong optical modulation from the visible to the mid-infrared is demonstrated using thin-film smnio₃. modulation of a narrow band of light is demonstrated using plasmonic metasurfaces integrated with smnio₃.”

the columbia engineering site explained that the new material controls thermal radiation to build “intelligent” coatings for infrared camouflage and thermoregulation. this could make objects, including people, appear colder than they actually are, thus making them invisible to thermal cameras. there are also potential applications on satellites, free-space optical communication and in optical memory devices.

read more about this discovery at http://engineering.columbia.edu/news/optical-material-light-thermal-radiation.

to read the full report from researchers, visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201601204/full.