These high-powered sound beams have multiple uses. (Representational Pic)
Scientists in China have created an unprecedentedly bright laser that shoots particles of sound instead of light. According to New Scientist, this is the most powerful "sound laser" yet. At the core of the device is a one-micrometre-long silica bead. Researchers from Hunan Normal University in China used two beams of light to levitate the bead and surround it with a reflective cavity. Unlike regular lasers, that emit light particles called photons, these machines release particle-like chunks of sounds called phonons.
The output is similar - the particles are released in a narrow beam, like optical lasers emit photons.
Any vibration in the bead in "sound laser" creates phonons that are them amplified in the cavity before being released.
Hui Jing and his team made a modification to the existing architecture, which enhanced the laser's "brightness" - the amount of power it delivered - tenfold, as per New Scientist.
Similar designs, created before this "sound laser", worked for a few minutes, but this one could operate for over an hour, said Mr Hui.
Phonons are less affected while moving through liquids, and can be more effective in imaging watery tissues and deep-monitoring.
These particles can also be used in optoelectronics, terahertz-frequency ultrasound, signal modulation and manipulating nanoparticles.
Since they can emit sound in the terahertz frequency range, the beam can also be used to reveal what's under your clothes in airport scans.
Also known as Sound Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (SASER), these "sound lasers" produce a beam of uniform sound waves on a nano scale. The first successful SASERs were developed in 2009.