Device Modulates Light and Amplifies Tiny Signals

The miniscule movement of a single particle only one-tenth the diameter of a bacterium can induce sustained vibrations in an entire mechanical device that is 50 times larger. Using the interplay among light, electrons on the surface of metals, and heat, researchers created a plasmomechanical oscillator (PMO), so named because it tightly couples plasmons — the collective oscillations of electrons at the surface of a metal nanoparticle — to the mechanical vibrations of the much larger device in which it is embedded.