Jean-Charles Beugnot and Vincent Laude at Université de Franche-Comté in Besançon, France have simulated how light generates phonons inside an optical fiber and how the phonons then interact with the light that generated them, the Technology Review Physics ArXiv Blog reports.

They found that the light ends up guiding the phonons that it creates. In other words, it’s possible to create and then steer sound using light, raising the possibility of computing with phonons. Various groups around the world are working on phonon diodes and transistors, the building blocks of logic gates.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1207.2998: Electrostriction And Guidance Of Sound By Light In Optical Fbers