Beetle Naturally Builds Photonic Crystals

esocid writes "Impeding the dream of ultrafast optical computers, we've been unable to build an ideal 'photonic crystal' to manipulate visible light, until now. University of Utah chemists have discovered that nature already has designed photonic crystals with the ideal, diamond-like structure: They are found in the shimmering, iridescent green scales of a beetle from Brazil. The beetle is an inch-long weevil named Lamprocyphus augustus. Bartl and Galusha now are trying to design a synthetic version of the beetle's photonic crystals, using scale material as a mold to make the crystals from a transparent semiconductor. The scales can't be used in technological devices because they are made of fingernail-like chitin, which is not stable enough for long-term use, is not semiconducting and doesn't bend light adequately. Ideal photonic crystals could be used to amplify light and thus make solar cells more efficient, to capture light that would catalyze chemical reactions, and to generate tiny laser beams that would serve as light sources on optical chips."

Comments

Interesting privacy backdoor

[Mathinker]

I find it more ironic that your telling us that probably leaks out some of your private information, assuming that you are not taking positive measures to prevent Google from accumulating a search profile. And even if you are, the info would tell us something about the searches associated with your IP address.

Personally, I get much more geek points, my ads were for:

* Optical System Design - ZEMACS
* The Theory of Everything
* Spectral Products : Fiber/LED/tunable light sources