
Credit: Courtesy of the Atwater laboratory
Nanoscale patterning could enable precise manipulation of objects on many scales. Researchers at Caltech have designed a way to levitate and propel objects using only light, by creating specific nanoscale patterning on the objects’ surfaces. Though still theoretical, the work is a step toward developing a spacecraft that could reach the nearest planet outside of our solar system in 20 years, powered and accelerated only by light.
A paper describing the research appears online in the March 18 issue of the journal Nature Photonics...
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