The magnetic sandwich would be produced by an oscillator that would harness the spin of electrons to generate microwaves used by a cell phone. NIST predicts that a special type of stationary wave called a “soliton” could be created in one layer of the multilayered sandwich.
Creating the soliton requires that one of the layers be magnetized perpendicular to the plane of the main layers; then an electric current would be forced through a small channel, creating the soliton. Once the soliton is created, the magnetic orientation would oscillate at more than a billion times a second.
What does all this mean for cell phone security? By using a soliton to transmit a cell phone call, the frequency of the cell phone could be changed rapidly, making the signal hard to intercept and improving security. This would have wide applications for cell phones used by the military, intelligence services, law enforcement, and other areas where cell phone signal security is paramount.
In addition to extra security, the oscillator would use less energy than a traditional cell phone and would result in better quality because there would be less unwanted noise, NIST physicist Thomas Silva explained.
The research is preliminary at this stage. But who knows, some day you could order a Google cell phone “sandwich” and an Apple to go.