While our direct knowledge of black holes in the universe is
limited to what we can observe from thousands or millions of
light years away, a team of Chinese physicists has proposed a
simple way to design an artificial electromagnetic (EM) black
hole in the laboratory. In the Journal of Applied Physics,
Huanyang Chen at Soochow University and colleagues have
presented a design of an artificial EM black hole designed using
five types of composite isotropic materials, layered so that
their transverse magnetic modes capture EM waves to which the
object is subjected. The artificial EM black hole does not let
EM waves escape, analogous to a black hole trapping light. In
this case, the trapped EM waves are in the microwave region of
the spectrum. The so-called metamaterials used in the experiment
are artificially engineered materials designed to have unusual
properties not seen in nature. Metamaterials have also been used
in studies of invisibility cloaking and negative-refraction
superlenses. The group suggests th