2007年1月22日
研究人员University of Missouri-Columbia已经找到了一种在晶体中组织分子的方法，使杆子在相同方向上对齐。在初步测试中，科学家还发现，对齐的晶体具有改变光频率的潜力，使其对电信和计算的未来很重要。
"Making crystals parallel is difficult to do, but we've found a way to do it and are getting better at it," said Rainer Glaser, professor of chemistry in MU's College of Arts and Science. "Our preliminary testing indicates that there is a synergism we didn't expect. As a chemist, I was expecting the potential of a parallel crystal to be the sum of all its molecules, but in our collaborative work, we've found that there is even greater potential for these crystals than I anticipated."
Glaser与化学博士生Yongqiang Sui和MU物理学助理教授Ping Yu合作。作为物理学家，Yu能够以新的方式看待晶体，并考虑不同的应用。他发现，当红外激光聚焦在平行晶体上时，光的频率会变化。这一发现仍处于初步阶段，可能有可能导致创造更快，更有效的微芯片的技术。
"If you have a laptop computer sitting on your knees, you'll feel heat from it, but with this technology, the computer would not get hot," Sui said. "Large computing facilities spend millions of dollars in energy bills every year to keep their computers cool. Technology using crystals would not only reduce those costs, but also create faster computers. We hope that our discoveries might play a role in the development of this technology."
Glaser said the team's next step is to test different types of crystals to determine what has the best potential.
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