In the image, a flexible membrane (gray square) serves as an acoustic resonator, placed between two mirrors. When laser light is trapped between the mirrors, it passes repeatedly through the membrane. The force exerted by the laser light is used to control the membrane’s vibrations. (Image credit: Harris Lab)
Imagine being able to hear people whispering in the next room, while the raucous party in your own room is inaudible to the whisperers. Yale researchers have found a way to do just that — make sound flow in one direction — within a fundamental technology found in everything from cell phones to gravitational wave detectors.
What’s more, the researchers have used the same idea to control the flow of heat in one direction. The discovery offers new possibilities for enhancing electronic devices that use acoustic resonators.
The findings, from the lab of Yale’s Jack Harris, are published in the April 4 online edition of the journal Nature.
“This is an experiment in which we make a one-way route for sound waves,” said Harris, a Yale physics professor and the study’s principal investigator. “Specifically, we have two acoustic resonators. Sound stored in the first resonator can leak into the second, but not vice versa.”
Harris said his team was able to achieve the result with a “tuning knob” — a laser setting, actually — that can weaken or strengthen a sound wave, depending on the sound wave’s direction.
Then the researchers took their experiment to a different level. Because heat consists mostly of vibrations, they applied the same ideas to the flow of heat from one object to another.
“By using our one-way sound trick, we can make heat flow from point A to point B, or from B to A, regardless of which one is colder or hotter,” Harris said. “This would be like dropping an ice cube into a glass of hot water and having the ice cubes get colder and colder while the water around them gets warmer and warmer. Then, by changing a single setting on our laser, heat is made to flow the usual way, and the ice cubes gradually warm and melt while the liquid water cools a bit. Though in our experiments it’s not ice cubes and water that are exchanging heat, but rather two acoustic resonators.”
Although some of the most basic examples of acoustic resonators are found in musical instruments or even automobile exhaust pipes, they’re also found in a variety of electronics. They are used as sensors, filters, and transducers because of their compatibility with a wide range of materials, frequencies, and fabrication processes.
Learn more: It’s a one-way street for sound waves in this new technology
The Latest on: One-way sound
via Google News
The Latest on: One-way sound
- Local programs, people band together to save Puget Sound from harmful tire reefson June 29, 2022 at 5:15 pm
Several programs and concerned people are teaming up to remove dangerous and harmful tire reefs from Washington’s waters.
- Intelligent People Have This One Sleep Habit in Common, Science Sayson June 29, 2022 at 4:41 pm
This is good news for night owls everywhere! The post Intelligent People Have This One Sleep Habit in Common, Science Says appeared first on Reader's Digest.
- Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 review: Premium wireless headphones with hi-fi soundon June 29, 2022 at 11:52 am
A couple of years after Bowers & Wilkins launched its Px7 wireless active noise-canceling over-ear headphones at a price that put them in direct competition with the likes of the Sony ’s ...
- Major Chords Sound Happy, But Only To People Who Are Used To Western Musicon June 29, 2022 at 11:15 am
A new study published today showed that people in some communities in Papua New Guinea don’t associate chord progressions with moods in the same way that people do if they’re surrounded by Western ...
- Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 review: great sound with styleon June 29, 2022 at 4:00 am
You don’t buy Bowers & Wilkins headphones out of practicality. The company’s latest over-ear pair, the $399 PX7 S2, isn’t going to be the default, obvious choice for most people shopping for ...
- For this modern twist on 'The Sound of Music,' Austin audiences are part of the actionon June 28, 2022 at 6:20 am
Zach Theatre's sky-high take on "The Sound of Music" keeps everything you love about the ... style and structure of the 1959 rendering. The first thing one notices, however, is that the stage at the ...
- The Mercury’s Sound Off for Sunday, June 26on June 26, 2022 at 3:30 am
The EPA spent $4.3 million in funds from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package on environmental justice and climate change programs for activities like tree planting, ...
- Dave says: A casino doesn't sound like funon June 25, 2022 at 10:15 pm
Q. Sometimes on vacation trips I like to check out casinos. I always account for the money I wager in my budget, and I never spend more than I’ve allotted.
- ‘Sonic Detective’: The artist using sound to expose crimeson June 25, 2022 at 12:21 am
A new retrospective shows how sound artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan uses audio-visual techniques to bridge art and politics.
- Sound System: ROMP audio crew never misses a beaton June 23, 2022 at 10:00 pm
With crowds entering the grounds at Yellow Creek Park for the 19th annual ROMP Fest throughout the weekend, the clear sounds of the musicians on the main stage wouldn’t be ...
via Bing News