Tiny silicon beams vibrate at 70 MHz

17 Jun 2002

Scientists at Caltech have used a combination of photo- lithography and etching techniques to create minuscule free- standing silicon bridges only 7.7 microns long. By sending a current through a gold coating atop the beam and by applying a magnetic field at right angles to the current, the beam can be excited to vibrate at a resonant frequency. As reported in Nature, the researchers expect to make even smaller beams with resonant frequencies of a GHz or more--- might be useful in particle or phonon detectors.