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Light Resonators Used To Move Nano-Sized Objects
ElectricSteve writes "Scientists at Cornell University report they can now use a light beam carrying a single milliwatt of power to move objects and even change the optical properties of silicon from opaque to transparent at the nanometric scale." As the article says, such an advancement "could prove very useful for the future of micro-electromechanical (MEMS) and micro-optomechanical (MOMS) systems."
transparent aluminum
This story moves me slightly.
This is an example of using some light to cast an issue.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
You should see how my laser pointer makes the cat move!
I wonder if this will be used in future optical routers and switches or even processors - if the opaque-transparent (and back) switch happens fast enough, you could easily do a very large number of parallel on-off switches to optical pathways. No need for lots of MEMS/MOMS mirrors any more.
Imagine a nanoscale thinking machines cm-5, except the light panels would then actually be part of the computation, controlling which nodes are on or off.
In a few years?
How quickly can they make the switch? The latency of the individual components dictates the design.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Srsly, who comes up with these acronyms? and don't say it was mom
The article doesn't give the names of any of the people involved in this, or any links where more detail can be found. Isn't it bad enough that researchers are paid crap; do they have to be anonymous too? How about giving these people some credit for their work.
won't be happy until I can cast magic missiles at these issues.
(You thought I was going to welcome our new micro-watt light resonator using overlords didn't you... Well there I just did...)
Anyone know if something like this could be used to apply a strong enough force to allow one to make a micro-sized fusion reactor?
Heavy Resonators Used To Move Mega-sized Objects
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Anyone who thinks it is telekinesis, please raise my hand.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Now let's see if I get the -1 Off-topic that this post surely deserves.
This is the same basic result as a previous article:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/10/26/1856230/New-Optomechanical-Crystal-Allows-Confinement-of-Light-and-Sound
The structure in the current article is a ring resonator in this article. In the previous article the structure was a grating based resonator.
I found an article with better information:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=optical-force-gradient
Singles? Movement? Changing optical properties? Nano-scale? Future of MOM systems? Slashdot, making sex jokes easier than your MOM system since 1997.
This is hardly news. Get back to us when they can move Emacs or Vim-sized objects.
Look at me, I am holding a flashlight behind my solar sail! woooo! See you next week, or not!
goatse, tubgirl and GNAA I can take. But now SPAM, on my slashdot? Someone please ban this fucker.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I am an author on the paper this article is on, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nature08584.html. Feel free to ask any questions.
-Sasha G.
Sarah, I could envisage a silicon nitride crystal (as described) having a mirrored surface attached, and being used to route light into various paths depending on the applied light pressure -- a multiple path switch. Is this possible? Does it make sense? Or, am I mis-reading what may be possible by the deformation you describe? Peter
Looking at space, radio, science and computing from a 'down-under' amateur enthusiast perspective.
Mirrors reflecting mirrors? High tech sorcery, I say!
http://arxiv.org/abs/0904.0794 Unlike in the original article, this one (the paper itself) cites the names of the authors...