[Michael_Voyageur]

Des scientifiques japonais découvrent un matériau qui piege les ondes electro-magnétiques

Par sa structure particuliere dite "photo-fractale" un morceau d'epoxy parviendrait à pieger les ondes éléctro-magnetiques ambiantes durant quelques millioniemes de secondes , suffisamment longtemps pour pouvoir etre utilisees par des microprpcesseurs.

La decouverte fortuite pourait trouver des applications dans les circuits de microelectronique des appareil portables telephones ou PDA etc.

Source : IHT/Asahi
Vu sur : asahi.com

Energy-trapping cube has potential to store light waves
The Asahi Shimbun

Fractal experts achieve a lucky breakthrough with simple epoxy block.

Japanese researchers tinkering with an experiment that evolved from casual chats created an energy-wave trap that has been the holy grail of scientists worldwide.

They built a cube that-for just a fraction of a second-stored electromagnetic waves.

Practical applications could include power sources for mobile phones, which would draw energy from electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere. They could also serve as heaters for thermotherapy in cancer treatment.

The researchers themselves were astonished at the results and say they do not understand how the device works.

The ability to store electromagnetic waves has long been the goal of researchers everywhere.

The epoxy resin cube, which is 27 millimeters along each edge and weighs about 9 grams, stored electromagnetic waves within its hollow core ever so briefly.

The research group includes Mitsuo Takeda and Katsuya Honda, professors at Shinshu University's Faculty of Science, and Yoshinari Miyamoto, a professor at Osaka University's Joining and Welding Research Institute.

The group calls the cube's structure ``photonic fractal.'' In the mathematical world of fractals, dimensions can be fractions instead of integers, such as a dimension of 1.

The researchers' study is to be published in the respected U.S. periodical Physical Review Letters.

The group's experiment showed that the cube, which is indented with pits, stored in its central hollow most of the electromagnetic energy when electromagnetic waves with a frequency of 8 gigahertz were applied to it.

Even when the application stopped, the cube retained the waves-for one 10-millionth of a second, long enough for a supercomputer to make tens of thousands of calculations.

When a solid cube of the same size and material was subjected to the same level of electromagnetic radiation, the waves either reflected off the surface or passed through the cube.

The researchers do not know why such a simple structure made of common material has those properties.

The researchers said that while it is theoretically possible for the cube to retain light, they have yet to conduct experiments in that area.

Takeda said, ``When we were overseeing university entrance exams two years ago, Honda, who is a fractal expert, and I were chatting.

``I heard from him that nothing much has been studied about the nature of fractal dimensions and suggested this experiment, thinking that maybe we could write a paper on it. I was surprised by the result.''
(IHT/Asahi: January 8,2004) (01/0
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