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."

missing tag

[fivethreeo]

transparent aluminum

Re:missing tag

[middlemen]

single MOMS

Re:

[DJGrahamJ]

I clicked this link in my RSS reader for the sole purpose of seeing how long it took for a MOMS joke.

I'm saddened that I had to wait all the way to post #2.

Re:missing tag

[nacturation]

Micro Inductive Light Force?

Re:

[Dunbal]

goatse, tubgirl and GNAA I can take. But now SPAM, on my slashdot? Someone please ban this fucker.

How nice.

[SEWilco]

This story moves me slightly.

Re:

[XPeter]

But your body has billions of nano-sized things. Shouldn't you have plowed into the wall?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

But your body has billions of nano-sized things.

That's not what your MOMS said!

Re:

[Tibia1]

The future is looking bright now that some light has been shed on this previously transparent topic.

Re:

[ae1294]

The future is looking transparent now that light has been shed on this previously opaque topic.

Please read at least the summery next time before posting, thank you! - /. Asshole #1547521
P.S. I must be new here...

I wasn't off-topic as THIS! IS! SLASHHHDOOOOT!!!!

Makes things obvious in Soviet Russia

[gringer]

This is an example of using some light to cast an issue.

I for one,

[ae1294]

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...)

That's nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

You should see how my laser pointer makes the cat move!

Re:

[Sulphur]

Does this work on Schroedinger's cat?

Re:

[crazyjimmy]

maybe.

Re:

[vegiVamp]

Yes and no.

Future switching?

[sander]

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.

Re:Future switching?

[NoYob]

I was thinking of tractor beams, myself.

Re:

[aflag]

Yes, cloud + lightning paradigm.

Re:

[vegiVamp]

Don't you mean Cloud + Sephiroth ? This *is* slash, after all.

Sonic screwdriver

[Anonymous Coward]

In a few years?

Re:

[Dunbal]

In a few years?

      Or quite possibly, a few years ago...

      (TARDIS sounds in the background)

MOMS?

[ickleberry]

Srsly, who comes up with these acronyms? and don't say it was mom

Re:

[martas]

pop?

Re:MOMS?

[DNS-and-BIND]

It's an acronym. It has no meaning, it's just an abbreviation of Micro-OptoMechanical Systems. Perhaps you were waiting for someone to make a totally contrived name, where they start with the name and make dumb words up to fit it? The sort of "acronym" that sounds hilarious the first time you say it, and gets progressively less funny each time?

Re:

[nacturation]

SRSLY... Standard Resonant Simplified Laser Yield?

How about giving credit where due?

[Bill Dimm]

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.

Re:How about giving credit where due?

[Steve525]

My guess is it's Michal Lipson's group:

http://nanophotonics.ece.cornell.edu/ [cornell.edu]

Re:How about giving credit where due?

[ColdWetDog]

Here, let me shine some light [nature.com] on the subject.

Re:

[amirulbahr]

This article [cornell.edu] does:

The research by postdoctoral researcher Gustavo Wiederhecker, Long Chen, Ph.D. '09, Alexander Gondarenko, Ph.D. '10, and Lipson appears in the online edition of the journal Nature and will appear in a forthcoming print edition.

Re:

[Interoperable]

Researchers don't much care about recognition on /.. They're getting a Nature publication out of this so you can bet that they're fairly happy with the exposure it's getting. Although from the looks of it, it's not that uncommon for that group, damn impressive publication record. Nano, nano, nano; they've got the right buzzword [phdcomics.com] to collect high-profile publications anyway.

Fusion?

[ae1294]

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?

Next Week

[Hatta]

Heavy Resonators Used To Move Mega-sized Objects

Re:

[Hurricane78]

That’s called an American discotheque. ^^

Telekinesis!

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Less than a single milliwatt of power in a beam that moves things? Could this be the basis for the wide spread reports about telekinesis.?

Anyone who thinks it is telekinesis, please raise my hand.

Re:

[drmitch]

Umm... I would LOVE to see a RATE of energy production move ANYTHING. I think they meant millijoule of energy. Please don't tell me that I'm the only one that saw this.

1 mW is just a single milliwatt?

[amirulbahr]

Is it just me or does the term "single milliwatt of power" sound odd? It seems to imply something discrete that comes in ones and twos and threes and so on. Why wouldn't you just say "a 1 mW light beam"?

Now let's see if I get the -1 Off-topic that this post surely deserves.

Re:

[rossdee]

As opposed to a married milliwatt?

Re:1 mW is just a single milliwatt?

[martas]

CLICK TO MEET SINGLE MILLIWATTS IN YOUR AREA!!!!!!

oh damn, apparently /. filter doesn't have a sense of humor, so I can't post that... maybe now I can? yes!

Re:

[amirulbahr]

Here is an article much closer to the source [cornell.edu].

More info

[Steve525]

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 [slashdot.org]

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 [scientificamerican.com]

Re:

[XPeter]

+1 Well played, sir.

Only Nano-sized?

[Norsefire]

This is hardly news. Get back to us when they can move Emacs or Vim-sized objects.

Re:

[MichaelSmith]

No thats an Eclipse sized object.

silicon nitride deformation - mirrors/light paths

[brindafella]

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

Re:

[tuxicle]

Mirrors reflecting mirrors? High tech sorcery, I say!

The paper can be read, as usual

[f3r]

http://arxiv.org/abs/0904.0794 [arxiv.org] Unlike in the original article, this one (the paper itself) cites the names of the authors...