Design technique opens door for NEMS

摘要

A way to predict the behavior of evanescent light waves during nanoscale radiation heat transfer has been discovered by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. The technique could allow designers to reliably create nanoscale electromechanical systems (NEMS) and employ nanotechnologies for such things as solar thermal energy devices. Evanescent waves are unstable waves produced when light encounters nanoscale features that disrupt its wavelength. Zhuomin Zhang, a lead researcher on the project and a professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, says the discovery provides fundamental information to determine things like the size of and distance between plates when using nanoscale radiation heat transfer. Being able to control these effects would allow energy to be produced by radiating photons of light between two surfaces as close as 10 nm, smaller than the wavelength of the light.