Cloaking device

In the fictional Star Trek universe, a cloaking device is a mechanism that is widely used by starships of the Romulan and Klingon Empires. Its basis is a space warping field which effectively creates a bubble. This bubble bends all photons around the vessel effectively preventing light from reflecting off the hull. This makes the entire vessel invisible to outside vessels.

While cloaked a vessel cannot fire weapons as the bubble of the cloak is effectively reflective and therefore torpedoes can impact against it and directed energy weaponry is reflected back to the internal surface of the vessel. The greatest problem with the cloaking device is that the shields of the vessel cannot be raised simultaneously, this leaves the vessel highly vunerable if a ship in pursuit manages to determine their location. Some of the limitations of the cloaking device is that it doesn't mask warp or engine trails and that while cloaked the field severely reduces sensor capabilities.

During the brief aliance between the Klingons and Romulans there was an exchange of technology, the Klingons were supplied with cloaking technology in exchange for giving the Romulans a supply of D-7 cruiser ships. One of the ways to penetrate a cloak with sensors is to fire tachyon pulses, used 'photon' depth charges or thermal burst imaging. Tachyons aren't photonic and because of that pass straight through cloaking devices and then will bounce of the vessel and during the passage through the cloaking field it may cause the cloak to reset. Photon torpedoes can be used as depth charges to spray particles around an area of space where there is suspected to be a cloaked object. This causes the object to be illuminated as particle collide with the cloak at barely sub-light velocities. Thermal bursts can be fired from the sensor dish in patterns, this will cause any object they come into contact to heat up and this can be received on thermal imaging sensors.

The cloaking device first appeared in the original series' episode "Balance of Terror." In "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", a prototype Klingon Bird of Prey appears that is capable of firing weapons while cloaked. Although when firing it becomes partly visible at the point of the vessel from which the weapons emanate. The advancement that makes this possible is not explained.

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See also: Physics and Star Trek