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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

A nanomachine makes light work

Laser light helps to build a miniature ‘gear’ system and provides energy to turn it.
Seven-particle optical matter gear. This video shows a simulation of a seven-particle optical matter gear.

When exposed to laser light, seven nanoparticles (dark blue blobs) form a hexagonal array. Light blue and yellow areas represent the electric field around the particles. Credit: Norbert F. Scherer/University of Chicago

When added to water, many nanometre-scale particles do little more than dance around. But when they are forced together by laser light, the tiny particles can organize themselves into orderly structures known as optical matter. Norbert Scherer at the University of Chicago in Illinois and his colleagues have put such matter to work.

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Nature 586, 477 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02902-4

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