A new physical mechanism allows 'phonon lasing' driven by optical forces at ambient conditions

Recent years have seen a steady increase in the number of research reports dealing with full control of phonons. The word "phononics" is slowly entering the scientific vocabulary to indicate a platform in which coherent phonons can be generated, harnessed and detected. In the field of photonics, lasers were a key element to fully enable the technology, but development was not achieved until lasers became easy to build and control. Likewise, despite the so-called "phonon laser" that has been demo