EVEN Hendrix would have struggled with this guitar. It was etched out of a silicon wafer by researchers at Cornell University in New York state, and it’s little more than 30 micrometres long. This isn’t the first or smallest “nanoguitar” – the group made one in the shape of a Fender Stratocaster back in 1997 – but it’s the first to be played.
Lidija Sekaric and her colleagues found a way to turn an ordinary laser into a nanoplectrum. They use interference to modulate the laser light so that it heats the strings intermittently. This makes them bend back and forth, producing…
