Good vibrations

Nanoscience is getting much closer to a commercial reality. A billion times closer, in fact, a university-based research team believes.

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Case Western Reserve University have created a device that vibrates a billion times per second. With further development, the 1-GHz prototype could bring nanotechnology into the commercial world, says Michael Roukes, a professor of physics, applied physics, and bioengineering at Caltech.

The nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) device developed by Roukes's group uses silicon carbide epilayers to control the thickness of layers down to atomic dimensions. A balanced high-frequency technique for detecting motion transfers signals to macroscale circuits. This capability is key to the success of the pioneering work by Roukes and team members Xue-Ming Huang, Chris Zorman, and Mehran Mehrengany.