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AUGUST 2021 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 73 all matters of life, procuring printed circuits is also about finding solutions. We aim to guide our customers in a material selection, available within reasonable time. Finding solutions that combine function and availability is vital. Today, the best direction is not necessarily to meet all the customers' needs, finding special materials, or processes, but maybe all of this in combination with a realistic view of what can be done, within a reasonable time. Until last autumn, we did not have this under- standing. Today, it is vital to reach the market in time. My senior technical advisor colleagues and I aim to maintain the attitude, "Nothing is impossible, we will find a solution." at is still true, and in 90% of the cases it's possible. However, "the material availabili- ty ghost" is haunting the industry every day, which means we also need to use all our skills and knowledge about material lead times to find good solutions for the customers, and maybe most importantly, realistic, and reliable solutions. PCB007 Jan Pedersen is a senior technical advisor at Elmatica. To read past columns or contact The PCB Norsemen, click here. Researchers have detected the rolling move- ment of a nano-acoustic wave predicted by the fa- mous physicist and Nobel prize winner Lord Ray- leigh in 1885. This phenomenon can find applica- tions in acoustic quantum technologies or in so- called "phononic" components, which are used to control the propagation of acoustic waves. A research team used a nanowire inside which electrons are forced onto circular paths by the spin of the acoustic wave. Acoustic waves are incredibly versatile in modern nanophysics, as they can influence both electronic and photon- ic systems. For example, minute micro- acoustic chips in computers, smartphones or tablets ensure that the wireless signals received are electronically processed. However, despite wide-ranging uses of na- no-acoustic waves, the fundamental prop- erty of spin of the nano-acoustic wave had not been detected until this study. In their study, the researchers used an extremely fine nanowire that was positioned on a so-called piezoelec- tric material, lithium niobate. This ma- terial becomes deformed when sub- jected to an electrical current, and, with the aid of small metal electrodes, an acoustic wave can be generated on the material. On the surface of the material, the acoustic wave generates an elliptically ro- tating (gyrating) electrical field. This, in turn, forces the electrons in the nanowire onto circular paths. "So far we knew about this phenomenon for light," said Zubin Jacob, Purdue's Elmore Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "Now we have succeeded in demonstrating that this is a universal effect, which also occurs in other types of waves such as sound waves on a techno- logically important platform, lithium niobate." (Source: Purdue University) Spin-sonics: Acoustic Wave Gets the Electrons Spinning Representation of the spin of a nanoscale acoustic wave. Credit: Maximilian Sonner, Institute of Physics at the University of Augsburg.