Professor Xiang Zhang was interviewed by the New York Times for the long article “Light Fantastic: Flirting with Invisibility” in relation to his group’s breakthrough demonstration of the “superlens," published on June 12, 2007.

“Increasingly, physicists are constructing materials that bend light the “wrong” way, an optical trick that could lead to sharper-than-ever lenses or maybe even make objects disappear…” writes the New York Times in a Science Times cover article.

Professor Xiang Zhang was interviewed for the article in relation to his Lab’s breakthrough demonstration of the “superlens,” published in the April 2005 issue of Science. Professor Zhang’s work brings practical reality to years of speculation over the superlens and marks a significant step toward realizing a new class of optical material. Meta-materials promise a range of unique characteristics enabling ultra-high resolution lenses capable of optically resolving viruses and unprecedented high levels of optical data-storage on DVD like media. Professor Zhang’s group recently moved a step closer to this goal with the demonstration of a meta-material “super-lens” with magnification, or “hyper-lens,” published in the June 2007 issue of Science. These exciting materials may even one day lead to “invisibility cloaks” that shield objects from sight.