LIGHT AND SOUND VIBRATIONS TOGETHER IN NANOCRYSTAL

For the first time, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a nanoscale crystal device that permits scientists to confine both light and sound vibrations in the small space together.

Generally light and sound waves can be manipulated separately; but it is the first time that it is possible to accommodate and create the interaction between within a nanocrystal which is a single structure.

Mechanical vibrations, with frequencies as high as tens of gigahertz, can be produced due to the interactions between sound and light in this tiny device. This awesome facility will provide the ability of nanocrystals to send the large amount of information. In light wave communication system, where we need to achieve high frequencies, this device can give us a suitable option to fasten the speed of data transfer. In biosensor and nanomechanics, it can also serve us some useful purpose.

All of the above said techniques can be incorporated into a single silicon microchip.

In these types of crystals, two types of basic units are present: quanta of light and quanta of sound. Therefore researchers got the ability to manipulate sound and light in same nanoplatform and to interconvert the energy between two systems. So scientists got the ability to engineer this property in many ways.

As the light and sound waves are confined in small space, the interactions of the light and sound get stronger as the volume to which they are confined decreases. Second, the amount of mass that has to move to create the sound wave gets smaller as the volume decreases.

Researchers pointed out that, in addition to measuring high-frequency sound waves, it's actually possible to produce these waves using only light. Light waves can be converted into microwave-frequency sound waves on the surface of a silicon microchip.

These sound waves are analogous to the light waves of a laser. The way the system has been designed that makes it possible to use these sound waves by routing them around on the chip, and making them interact with other on-chip systems. Essentially, optomechanical crystals provide a whole new on-chip architecture in which light can generate, interact with, and detect high-frequency sound waves.