A new sound-based laser could measure gravity with unprecedented precision and reshape navigation technology.

Since their introduction in the 1960s, lasers have fueled major advances in science and everyday technology, from supermarket scanners to eye surgery. Traditional lasers operate by controlling photons, which are particles of light. Over the past two decades, researchers have expanded this concept to other particles, including phonons, which represent tiny units of vibration or sound. Learning to control phonons could unlock new capabilities, including access to unusual quantum effects such as entanglement.

Squeezed Phonon Laser Advances Precision.