PHOTO: The scientists created three-dimensional acoustic fields that can exert forces on particles to levitate and manipulate them
A team of scientists have used sound waves to levitate tiny objects without a wizard or wand in sight.
The breakthrough, published today in Nature Communications, could lead to developments in areas as diverse as high-powered "tractor beams"; or manipulating drug delivery in the human body.
Co-author Bruce Drinkwater, Professor of Ultrasonics at the University of Bristol, said while other groups had successfully levitated objects, this had been achieved only by surrounding the object with speakers.
However, Professor Drinkwater and colleagues managed to move the tiny objects - less than one millimetre in size - using a single-sided array of loudspeakers.
The use of a single-sided device to manipulate objects in mid-air extends the potential of the technology as items would no longer need to be surrounded by loudspeakers, Professor Drinkwater said.
He said their new study built on the work of researchers at the University of Dundee.The Dundee team had shown there was a force attracting some acoustic waves back to their sound source.
"But they did not move anything and their system could not trap and hold any objects stable," he said.
"So, we have gone from knowing that the force exists to turning it into a stable working device."
In the paper, the researchers reveal they have not only levitated very small objects but could move them in a controlled manner using acoustic "tweezers", "twisters" and "cages" to manipulate the objects
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