New phonon laser could lead to breakthroughs in sensing and information processing
(PHYSorg.com Physics)

The optical laser has grown to a $10 billion global technology market since it was invented in 1960, and has led to Nobel prizes for Art Ashkin for developing optical tweezing and Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland for work with pulsed lasers. Now a Rochester Institute of Technology researcher has teamed up with experts at the University of Rochester to create a different kind of laser-a laser for sound, using the optical tweezer technique invented by Ashkin.