Force of light used for driving nanomachines

11 December 2008

According to the research appeared in November 27 issue of Nature, researchers demonstrated successfully the use of light force for driving nanomachines. Researchers at Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science were able to merge nanophotonics and nanomechanics applications together to harness the forces of sunlight to drive machines.

Although it is quite clear that forces of light are too weak and without harnessing these forces, light forces cannot be used for specific applications. Scientists conventionally used light with a focused laser beam using a technique known as “optical tweezers”, however for the present study researchers integrated all on a chip and instead of moving particles with light, here they moved the semiconductor device.

Researchers argue that a new force radiation pressure applies in the direction of the flow of the light and this force actually acts as the driver for nanomechanics. Researchers carried out a state of art nanophotonic experiment and confined and passed ultra high intensity light to nanoscale photon wires and the found that significant light force was generated, which is enough to operate nanoscale machinery on silicon chip.

Researchers believe that the technique is a giant step in the direction of developing speed, however they are working on the technique to improve mechanical aspects. They have already demonstrated the output of the technique to a number of devices made on a single chip because they harness the light intensity up to one million times stronger than the direct sunlight.

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