{"id":114059,"date":"2020-10-09T03:48:19","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T10:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/nanoscale-machines-convert-light-into-work"},"modified":"2020-10-09T03:48:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T10:48:19","slug":"nanoscale-machines-convert-light-into-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/nanoscale-machines-convert-light-into-work","title":{"rendered":"Nanoscale machines convert light into work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-right: 20px\"><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/nanoscale-machines-convert-light-into-work2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn previous work, the researchers discovered that when optical matter is exposed to circularly polarized light, it rotates as a rigid body in the direction opposite the polarization rotation. In other words, when the incident light rotates one way the optical matter array responds by spinning the other. This is a manifestation of \u201cnegative torque\u201d. The researchers speculated that a machine could be developed based on this new phenomenon.<\/p>\n<p>In the new work, the researchers created an optical matter machine that operates much like a mechanical machine based on interlocking gears. In such machines, when one gear is turned, a smaller interlocking gear will spin in the opposite direction. The optical matter machine uses circularly polarized light from a laser to create a nanoparticle array that acts like the larger gear by spinning in the optical field. This \u201coptical matter gear\u201d converts the circularly polarized light into orbital, or angular, momentum that influences a nearby probe particle to orbit the nanoparticle array (the gear) in the opposite direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Researchers have developed a tiny new machine that converts laser light into work. These optically powered machines self-assemble and could be used for nanoscale manipulation of tiny cargo for applications such as nanofluidics and particle sorting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur work addresses a long-standing goal in the nanoscience community to create self-assembling <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/nanoscale+machines\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">nanoscale machines<\/a> that can perform work in conventional environments such as room temperature liquids,\u201d said research team leader Norbert F. Scherer from the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>Scherer and colleagues describe the new nanomachines in <i>Optica<\/i>. The machines are based on a type of matter known as optical matter in which metal nanoparticles are held together by light rather than the <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/chemical+bonds\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">chemical bonds<\/a> that hold together the atoms that make up typical matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIn previous work, the researchers discovered that when optical matter is exposed to circularly polarized light, it rotates as a rigid body in the direction opposite the polarization rotation. In other words, when the incident light rotates one way the optical matter array responds by spinning the other. This is a manifestation of \u201cnegative torque\u201d. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":609,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,4,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-nanotechnology","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/609"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}