South Korean scientists have developed technologies with which they can design artificial material capable of avoiding detection by sonar systems such as those used in stealth aircraft.  

A research team at Sogang University led by Professors Kim Dong-chul and Moon Jun-hyuk said Friday that they have configured how to design metamaterials, which do not exist in nature, by virtue of three-dimensional morphology.

The team said if a metamaterial is made according to the design method it developed, the differences in the velocities of electromagnetic waves transmitted through the material can be up to 200 times depending on the directions of the waves.

In addition, the differences in the stiffness of the metamaterial can be ten times depending on the directions of force applied to it.

They said it can be used as a material to make up a stealth submarine that is unable to be detected by sonar technology.

The research was presented in a paper published in the global science journal Scientific Reports.