Growing Simple Crystals for Non-Linear Optics Experiments

Here’s an exercise for you: type “crystals” into your favorite search engine and see what you get. If you’re anything like us, you’ll get a bunch of pseudoscientific posts about …read more Continue reading Growing Simple Crystals for Non-Linear Optics Experiments

Growing Spectacular Gem-Like Crystals from Rust and Simple Ingredients

Potassium ferrioxalate crystal

When we talk about crystals around here, we’re generally talking about the quartz variety used to make oscillators more stable, or perhaps ruby crystals used to make a laser. We …read more Continue reading Growing Spectacular Gem-Like Crystals from Rust and Simple Ingredients

Mining and Refining: Pure Silicon and the Incredible Effort It Takes to Get There

Were it not for the thin sheath of water and carbon-based life covering it, our home planet would perhaps be best known as the “Silicon World.” More than a quarter …read more Continue reading Mining and Refining: Pure Silicon and the Incredible Effort It Takes to Get There

Jan Czochralski and the Silicon Revolution

If you were to travel back in time to the turn of the previous century and try to convince the average person that the grains of sand on just about any beach would be the basis of an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars within 100 years, they’d probably …read more

Continue reading Jan Czochralski and the Silicon Revolution