Since the advent of lasers, researchers have strived to build an acoustic equivalent — devices that can amplify and emit sound waves at a single frequency.
Kerry Vahala and his group at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena fired a light laser at two micrometre-scale silica drums. The light raced around the rim of the drums, causing the drum heads to vibrate. Once the system crossed a threshold, one head beat with a pure, amplified tone — an effect that the researchers verified by looking at how the laser flickered as it exited the drums.
Such devices may prove useful in electronics and ultrasound applications.
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Applied physics: Sound lasers hum along. Nature 464, 11 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/464011b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/464011b