As moving large solar-sailed space vehicles around aided by the energy of sunlight has proved to be impossible so far, some experts were not discouraged by the failure. In fact, it made them realize that perhaps, if the energy was too little for such grand purposes, it might still be enough in order to drive machines of much smaller scale - the nanoscale. And, as their experiments and tests have proved, they were right.

A group of researchers from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Yale has managed to twist and bend the rules of light usage of previous researches and build on it. Instead of using the focused harnessed light for the purpose of moving a single micromachine, the specialists have integrated small machines on a chip and moved them by means of a newly-designed semiconductor.

 

“Our work demonstrates the advantage of using nano-objects as 'targets' for the force of light - using devices that are a billion-billion times smaller than a space sail, and that match the size of today’s typical transistors,” explains the project leader Hong Tang, an assistant professor at Yale, quoted by New Scientist. “When researchers talk about optical forces, they are generally referring to the radiation pressure light applies in the direction of the flow of light. The new force we have investigated actually kicks out to the side of that light flow.”

 

“We create hundreds of devices on a single chip, and all of them work,” shares Tang, while admitting that they succeeded mainly due to an optical I/O device designed by fellow technicians from the University of Washington. “While this development has brought us a new device concept and a giant step forward in speed, the next developments will be in improving the mechanical aspects of the system. But the photon force is with us,” adds Tang.