optomechanics

From NIST: PML at Work

A team of scientists from PML's Quantum Measurement Division has designed and tested a novel device[1] that may lead to substantial progress in the new and fast-moving field of optomechanics.

That discipline studies and exploits the ways in which the feeble force of light interacts with very small mechanical objects. Or, as the team leader John Lawall says, "it involves coupling optical to mechanical systems in which the coupling is provided by radiation pressure."

Transistors, resistors, capacitors, and diodes. All of these are examples of common electrical circuit elements that can be found on a computer motherboard, for instance. Billions of transistors make up a processor, with each one being less than 100 nanometers in size. This is more than 10 times smaller than the diameter of a blood cell.