November 1, 2003

Nanoguitar

Source: Dustin W. Carr and Harold G. Craighead

Update: 

 

A newer version of the nanoguitar was just made in which the strings can be "played" by a laser.  Read about it here in an AIP note.

 

 

References:

"Measurement of nanomechanical resonant structures in single-crystal silicon", D. W. Carr, L. Sekaric, and H. G. Craighead, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, 16, 3821 (1998).

Cornell Press Release about Nanoguitar

 

Electron-microscope image of the world's smallest guitar. Its length is 10 micrometers (10 millionths of a meter).  That's about the size of a red blood cell and about 1/20th the width of a single human hair. Its strings have a width of about 50 nanometers (the size of approximately 100 atoms). If you were to pluck the tiny strings they would produce a high-pitched sound at the inaudible frequency of approximately 10 megahertz. Made by Cornell researchers with a single silicon crystal using the techniques of high voltage electron beam lithography, this tiny guitar is a fun example of nanotechnology.  Many of the same techniques are applied by scientists building machines and devices on the nanometer scale  to perform useful technological functions and study submicroscopic processes.