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posted by janrinok on Wednesday October 12 2016, @01:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the bend-it-like-light dept.

Researchers have designed a device that uses light to manipulate its mechanical properties. The device, which was fabricated using a plasmomechanical metamaterial, operates through a unique mechanism that couples its optical and mechanical resonances, enabling it to oscillate indefinitely using energy absorbed from light.

This work demonstrates a metamaterial-based approach to develop an optically-driven mechanical oscillator. The device can potentially be used as a new frequency reference to accurately keep time in GPS, computers, wristwatches and other devices, researchers said. Other potential applications that could be derived from this metamaterial-based platform include high precision sensors and quantum transducers. The research was published Oct. 10 in the journal Nature Photonics.

Researchers engineered the metamaterial-based device by integrating tiny light absorbing nanoantennas onto nanomechanical oscillators.
...
The device in this study resembles a tiny capacitor--roughly the size of a quarter--consisting of two square plates measuring 500 microns by 500 microns. The top plate is a bilayer gold/silicon nitride membrane containing an array of cross-shaped slits--the nanoantennas--etched into the gold layer. The bottom plate is a metal reflector that is separated from the gold/silicon nitride bilayer by a three-micron-wide air gap.

When light is shined upon the device, the nanoantennas absorb all of the incoming radiation from light and convert that optical energy into heat. In response, the gold/silicon nitride bilayer bends because gold expands more than silicon nitride when heated. The bending of the bilayer alters the width of the air gap separating it from the metal reflector. This change in spacing causes the bilayer to absorb less light and as a result, the bilayer bends back to its original position. The bilayer can once again absorb all of the incoming light and the cycle repeats over and over again.


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