Military nano drones that are specifically meant for spying expeditions behind enemy lines can now be remotely controlled by engineers. In case the drone is caught and seized, this can help them to avert disclosure of valuable information stored in the device and also prevent unintended disasters. This can be achieved with the help of the newly developed aluminum nanoparticle-based plasmonic surface nanomaterial, which can be used for the development of rewritable chips.
These nanophotonic chips can function like an etch-a-sketch play toy used for child's play. But instead, in this case, the chips will store information in the form of optical components that may be written, erased and rewritten via optical signals.
The optically re-writable military nano drones can be manufactured using the innovative nanomaterial, which was developed by Yuebing Zheng, a professor in Mechanical Engineering and Material Sciences, Cockrell School of Engineering. The research findings of his group were published in the Nano Letters Journal in November 2016, reports Science Daily. According to Prof. Zheng, "The molecules in this material are very sensitive to light, so we can use a UV light or specific light wavelengths to erase or create optical components."
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