Quantum researchers created a new kind of laser built from sound

Quantum researchers created a new kind of laser built from sound

A tiny silica bead, just 100 nanometers across, sits suspended in a vacuum and vibrates under the grip of laser light. Those vibrations might sound like a small detail, but in this case they are the heart of a new kind of laser, one that works not with light particles, but with particles of mechanical motion. Researchers at the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology have built what they describe as a squeezed phonon laser,…