Particle.news
Download on the App Store
4 ARTICLES
·
last mo.

Rochester Team Demonstrates Squeezed Phonon Laser That Cuts Thermal Noise

The lab device sharpens nanoscale measurements to hint at future quantum navigation.

Phonon lasers are used to trap and levitate nanoparticles in the laboratory of Nick Vamivakas, the Marie C. Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Optical Physics at the University of Rochester. https://www.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70564-3
image: ©Fotoneurotic | iStock

Overview

  • University of Rochester and RIT researchers, whose peer-reviewed paper appeared Monday in Nature Communications, report a two-mode thermomechanically squeezed phonon laser with National Science Foundation support.
  • The system reduces intrinsic thermal noise by using carefully timed light to push and pull the vibrating medium, which stabilizes the signal used for sensing.
  • The team reports more accurate acceleration measurements than methods that use light-based lasers or radio-frequency waves, pointing to gains for precision force sensing.
  • The experiment levitates nanoparticles in a vacuum with optical tweezers, letting the researchers generate and control laser-like streams of phonons, which are quantized vibrations.
  • Researchers describe a path toward quantum compasses and pinpoint gravity sensing, building on a 2019 phonon-laser demo limited by noise, though practical devices will need significant engineering.