Special Squares

Peterson, Kitt

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/99723 Copy

Description

Title

Special Squares

Author(s)

Peterson, Kitt

Issue Date

2018-04

Keyword(s)

Electrical Engineering

Abstract

Although the features of crystals that we admire and use are always caused by some internal ordered structure, it is actually on their boundaries that the interesting things happen. The same is true of this “electronic crystal”, which is created from a square grid of meta-atoms that would normally absorb microwave radiation – the same kind that cooks food in your microwave. But in much the same way that a different internal structure can transform black carbon into transparent diamond, the special arrangement of these meta-atoms makes the crystal transparent everywhere... except at its corners. Stacked on top of each other, these 2D crystals would form a transparent cube with four colored (whatever color microwave radiation is) edges running top to bottom. Cutting off one of these edges would not remove the coloring, which instead pops up wherever a new edge forms. I built this electronic crystal as part of an effort to measure these never-before-seen properties, and even though we cannot perceive them ourselves the resulting structure is still quite striking.

Type of Resource

• text
• image

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/99723

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2018 Kitt Peterson

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