New skills of graphene: Tunable lattice vibrations

Without electronics and photonics, there would be no computers, smartphones, sensors, or information and communication technologies. In the coming years, the new field of phononics may further expand these options. That field ...

Vibrations on a chip feel a magnetic field

AMOLF physicists have made mechanical vibrations on a chip behave as if they were electrical currents flowing in a magnetic field. Because of their charge, electrons are influenced by magnetic fields, which curve their trajectories. ...

Cooling nanotube resonators with electrons

Mechanical resonators have been used with great success as new resources in quantum technology. Carbon nanotube mechanical resonators have shown to be excellent ultra-high sensitive devices for the study of new physical phenomena ...

Physicists 'flash-freeze' crystal of 150 ions

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have "flash-frozen" a flat crystal of 150 beryllium ions (electrically charged atoms), opening new possibilities for simulating magnetism at the quantum ...

From vibrations alone, acacia ants can tell nibbles from the wind

Acacia trees are a prominent feature of the East African savannah. They're also a classic example of the long-standing and complex relationships between plants and insects, in this case acacia ants. The acacias provide food ...

Detecting the birth and death of a phonon

Phonons are discrete units of vibrational energy predicted by quantum mechanics that correspond to collective oscillations of atoms inside a molecule or a crystal. When such vibrations are produced by light interacting with ...

New device modulates light and amplifies tiny signals

Imagine a single particle, only one-tenth the diameter of a bacterium, whose miniscule jiggles induce sustained vibrations in an entire mechanical device some 50 times larger. By taking clever advantage of the interplay between ...

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