Reactive gases fill the chamber and rain down onto the shiny substrate. As the atoms stick to the surface, a crystal grows one layer at a time. While this is going on, x-rays hit the film and exit the chamber through special windows. By analyzing the scattered x-rays, scientists can learn about how the atoms stick and move around on the substrate before they settle to grow a new crystalline material. Material designers are trying to create a source of blue light.
Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light, which has a number of technological advantages.
Because of its shorter wavelength, blue light could lead to a new type of CD-ROM that holds four times as much data as current disks. Blue light may also increase the number of simultaneous telephone calls that can travel over a fiber-optic communications cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Most tours last only 10 minutes. I hope they at least see that science isn t all fiction.