Physicists and engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a
nanoscale crystal that traps both light and sound. This is a first as reported in on-line edition of the journal Nature as reported in a Caltech press release on October 24, 2009.
Oskar Painter, associate professor of applied physics at Caltech, Caltech graduate student Matt
Eichenfield, Kerry Vahala, the Ted and Ginger Jenkins Professor of Information Science and
Technology and professor of applied physics, graduate student Jasper Chan, and postdoctoral scholar Ryan Camacho presented their discovery in the paper "Optomechanical crystals."
The nano crystal device called optomechanical crystal—can can manipulate light and sound at the
same time. The interaction of light quanta (photons) and sound quanta (phomons) are so strong that they produce mechanical vibrations of tens of gigahertz frequencies.
This level of energy will allow a multitude of light wave communication systems at speeds unheard of at present. The device is also capable of weighing masses as small as one macromolecule with light and can use sound to interact with the structures of present micro chip systems. Light alone can be converted to sound in the new crystal. The nano optomechanical crystals allow the interconversion of light and sound energy in the same structure. The smaller the size of the crystal the higher the energy interactions produced.
This development was predicated on Painters "zipper cavity" research which was announced at
http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13263. )
http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13296
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