The sound of a hybrid chip

Laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices are all equipped with integrated circuits or chips, a set of electronic components embedded on a small flat piece of semi-conducting material. Your favourite songs are stored in a magnetic memory that can be transmitted as a series of electronic pulses on these chips and subsequently to your earphones where they are eventually converted into sound.

But would it be possible to store and transmit information on a chip as sound waves without resorting to electronic signals?

A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (Erlangen, Germany), the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, USA), and the University of Malta have discovered a new technique to control the transmission of sound waves on a chip. Their research has been published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Electronic signals are usually shaped and steered on a chip using electric and magnetic fields,” says Vittorio Peano from the University of Malta. “Sound waves, which do not possess an electrical charge, are insensitive to such fields and are much more difficult to control on the nanoscale.”

“Our research shows that sound waves on a chip patterned with the appropriate arrangement of holes reproduce the motion of electrons in the presence of extremely strong magnetic fields,” adds Christian Brendel from the Max Planck Institute who is the first author of the paper.

“This discovery contributes to a growing toolbox developed by scientists worldwide that makes it possible to store, transmit and convert information in the form of sound, light and electronic signals on the same chip,” says Florian Marquardt from the Max Planck Institute who led the research. “Future technological applications might be based on such hybrid platforms hosting mechanical, optical and electrical components.” The University of Malta and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light participate in the Consortium Hybrid Optomechanical technology funded by a €10 million grant under the EU framework programme Horizon 2020.