phonon tagged posts

A Trick of Light: UC Irvine researchers turn Silicon into Direct Bandgap Semiconductor

composite photograph of three male scientists.
UC Irvine’s Ara Apkarian, Distinguished Professor emeritus of chemistry; Dmitry Fishman, adjunct professor of chemistry; and Eric Potma, professor of chemistry, (from left) brought together decades of knowledge and experience on a project that resulted in the discovery of a new way light can interact with matter, specifically indirect semiconductors, like silicon, an important building block in computers, electronics and solar power systems. Their work will help to greatly improve the power, efficiency and usability of the second-most abundant element in Earth’s crust. UC Irvine

Discovery enables manufacturing of ultrathin solar panels, advanced optoelectronics

By creating a new way for light and matter to interact, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have enable...

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Strong Magnets put New Twist on Phonons

Rice University postdoctoral researcher Andrey Baydin prepares to run an experiment at RAMBO, the Rice Advanced Magnet with Broadband Optics, a tabletop spectrometer that allows materials to be cooled and exposed to high magnetic fields. The instrument helped uncover a phenomenon by which nonmagnetic phonons can be manipulated by a magnetic field. Photo by Jeff Fitlow

Rice lab’s RAMBO reveals unexpected influence on compound’s crystal lattice.
Phonons are collective atomic vibrations, or quasiparticles, that act as the main heat carriers in a crystal lattice. Under certain circumstances, their properties can be modified by electric fields or light. But until now, nobody noticed they can respond to magnetic fields as well.

That may be because it takes a powerful magnet.

Rice Un...

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Vibrations at an Exceptional Point

A phonon laser formed by coupled optical resonators. Mechanical vibrations in resonator (blue) could be enhanced when the frequency difference of two optical supermodes matches with the frequency mechanical vibrations. Credit: Micro/Nano Photonics Lab

A phonon laser formed by coupled optical resonators. Mechanical vibrations in resonator (blue) could be enhanced when the frequency difference of two optical supermodes matches with the frequency mechanical vibrations.
Credit: Micro/Nano Photonics Lab

New laser uses light to create sound. A team of international researchers led by engineers at Washington University in St. Louis has seen the light and now has a lasing system that produces “good vibrations.” They developed a lasing system already adept at producing tiny light packets called photons into a tunable system that also makes little bits of mechanical energy called phonons – the energy products of oscillation, or vibration...

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