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Researchers Prove Existence Of New Type Of Electron Wave
ScienceDaily is reporting that physicists at the University of New Hampshire have discovered the existence of a new type of electron wave on metal surfaces. "The acoustic surface plasmon, which will have implications for developments in nano-optics, high-temperature superconductors, and the fundamental understanding of chemical reactions on surfaces. [...] 'The existence of this wave means that the electrons on the surfaces of copper, iron, beryllium and other metals behave like water on a lake's surface,' says Diaconescu, a postdoctoral research associate in the Condensed Matter Group of the physics department at UNH. 'When a stone is thrown into a lake, waves spread radially in all directions. A similar wave can be created by the electrons on a metal surface when they are disturbed, for instance, by light.'"
Scientific American covered this in an article 2 months ago. (print version yet!)
It is cool though. There may be some nice tech possibilities here. The SA article mentioned higher density HDDs and some chip interface effects. Maybe even a direct optical/electronic interface. Still, the work was done over a year ago. Reports have been coming in. Just not a new report here.
Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
Does it also defeat cancer, cure the common cold, disintegrate warts, and eliminate smelly feet? It seems like a lot of big claims are being made for something just discovered.
They've had theories for a while, and the theories indicate that some of the properties may be useful for these things. Now that they have established them as fact AND can reproduce them in a lab environment, they can determine if their guesses ( I would put any one of the researchers guesses against a million of yours ) are in any way accurate.
Science; Gotta love it
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Skin effect is effectively, in a nutshell, variation of conductor's resistance as function of signal's frequency. Strictly speaking, it ought to make harmonic distortions. However, this effect is quite negligible in signals whose frequencies are in audio spectrum.
OTOH, there are people who can positively recognize the difference by listening. Obvious conclusion is that our theory of auditory experience is incomplete in some way. There is something somewhere we've chosen not to look.
My first bet was on signal phase shift, as frequency response has been thoroughly "ironed straight" even more then is necessary, according to our tests. Fourier analysis can break down periodic signals into
Another possibility is that we have neglected the fact that our auditory sensors - "hair cells" may have more then one mode of resonance: since they are basically little mechanical oscillators, they could probably resonate on overtones, too. Therefore, it could be possible for a human to hear certain discrete ultrasound frequencies as well, although much attenuated.
Sorry, I had a large pause in the middle of writing the post. Unfinished sentence in the middle was meant to become: "Fourier analysis can break down periodic signals into harmonic components, but mixing all the ingredients back in may produce quite different signal envelope. That fact is deliberately used in DSP to simplify calculations."
That wavelength is used for long-distance fiber connectivity in big, fast, expensive router cards, the kind that telcos and ISPs use. Think 10Gbps up to 80km without repeaters (Take a look at some of these Cisco links for gory details.) The possibility that this development could lead to cheaper or more efficient lasers on that wavelength is good news.