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(PhysOrg.com) -- For a couple of decades now, physicists have known that if a very small laser beam is pointed at a microscopic particle, it could be held in place due to the very small electrical field that is generated. Because of that, the technique has been used to hold objects in place for close examination, sort of like using a pair of tweezers to hold a grain of sand for study under a magnifying glass. One truly nice feature of the technique is that it’s very gentle, thus no harm comes to the particle being examined.

A team of researchers at MIT has found a way to manipulate both the thermal conductivity and the electrical conductivity of materials simply by changing the external conditions, such as the surrounding temperature. And the technique they found can change electrical conductivity by factors of well over 100, and heat conductivity by more than threefold.

Transmitting information as pulses of light through fiber-optic cables is the fastest and highest-bandwidth communications technology that exists today. Yet even this technology is being pressed to carry ever-greater quantities of information.