The Vocal Memnon and Solar Thermal Automata
A memnonium is a selfactuating system that generates music using solar energy. The name comes from the statue of Memnon, a famous tourist attraction in the Greco-Roman world that was said to emit sound when warmed by the morning sun. The Memnon statue inspired the design of musical automata in later periods, to which there are many historical references. Several intriguing technologies and engineering methods may be well suited for modern memnonium design efforts. However, full realization of solar thermoacoustic and thermokinetic sculpture would likely require deep collaboration between physics, music and other disciplines. In modern times, only a few simple proofof- concept memnonia have been constructed.
We study the photorefractive self-action of light beams within an iron-doped planar optical waveguide in lithium niobate biased by external electric field, to find the conditions for the formation of quasisteady-state screening-photovoltaic spatial solitons. Their formation is expected to take much shorter time compared with the steady-state photovoltaic solitons.