Forget the iPod Nano, this radio is the real deal
Hot on the heels of the University of California at Irvine's single nanotube demodulator, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley team has created a fully functional radio from a single carbon nanotube.
A single carbon nanotube molecule serves simultaneously as all essential components of a radio antenna, tunable band-pass filter, amplifier, and demodulator.
"Using carrier waves in the commercially relevant 40-400 MHz range and both frequency and amplitude modulation (FM and AM), we were able to demonstrate successful music and voice reception," explained Alex Zettl, who led the team that created the radio, in a release at Berkeley Labs Research News.
The possible applications for the radio are practically limitless. The self assembling nanotubes could be used in everything from biological and medical systems, to listening devices and sensors -- even the hand held music box.
The core of the radio consists of a carbon nanotube connected to an electrode in close proximity to a counter-electrode. Applying a DC voltage bias creates a negative electrical charge on the tip of the nanotube which sensitizes it to oscillating electric fields. The components are enclosed in a vacuum in a form similar to a conventional vacuum tube.
The charged tip of the nanotube interacts with incoming radio waves, causing it to vibrate. These vibrations are only significant when the wave frequency coincides with the flexural resonance frequency of the nanotube. This resonance frequency can be tuned during operation allowing it to receive a single channel of wavelength.
Further operations using the unique properties of the field-emission currents created by the concentration of the electric field of the negative DC bias and the geometry of the nanotubes allows the signal to be amplified. As field emission is a non-linear process, it can also demodulate an AM or FM radio signal, similar to the diodes used in conventional radios.
The first song played through the carbon nanotube radio was, aproppriately, Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys.
Listen to and watch the radio playing the main title theme from Star Wars here.
"It seems as though my state-funded math degree has failed me. Let the lashings commence." -- DailyTech Editor-in-Chief Kristopher Kubicki
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