Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
nanoscale antenna -like structure for sending and transmitting electromagnetic waves.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word nanoantenna.
Examples
-
The technique involves the embedding of square spirals of conducting metal onto a sheet of plastic, each of which, referred to as a “nanoantenna,” just 1/25 the diameter of a human hair.
-
Due to their size — each interlocking spiral nanoantenna is as wide as 1/25 the diameter of a human hair — the nanoantennas absorb energy in the infrared part of the spectrum, just outside the range of what is visible to the eye.
-
Although infrared rays create an alternating current in the nanoantenna, the frequency of the current switches back and forth ten thousand billion times a second — much too fast for electrical appliances, which operate on currents that oscillate only 60 times a second.
-
Practical uses for the nanoantenna go beyond hiding things.
-
Since no light is reflected back into an observer's eye, the nanoantenna-coated object is hidden.
-
With the new 3D nanoantenna, "you could change the direction of the light so it propagates through the active regions of the solar cells to maximize [energy]."
-
Call it what you will - the world's first 3D nanoantenna or an invisibility cloak - but asight.
-
That is a little closer to market than nanoantenna sheets.
RealClimate 2009
-
Call it what you will - the world's first 3D nanoantenna or an invisibility cloak - but a new metamaterial created by Rice University scientists could hide objects from human sight.
-
Reflecting all the gathered light in one direction means that the nanoantenna acts kind of like a mirrored magnifying glass, concentrating the light at a particular point.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.