Crystal Computers—Not Just for Superman Anymore

The ‘New Age’ community has been purporting the supernatural attributes of crystals for years, but many in the mainstream have written this off as hippy mumbo-jumbo. However, you may be surprised to learn that crystals have been used for the better part of the last half-century for computer data storage, and the advances in crystal tech have reached a new milestone in recent years.



Back in the 1950s—when the true potential of computers was first being realized—a breakthrough in data storage took place. Scientists discovered that the 1s and 0s that make up binary code could be imprinted on a thin slice of barium titanate crystal and stored as dots of energy to be read later. While the discovery of silicone integrated circuits (the modern microchip) took precedent, the storage capabilities of crystal structures have remained at the top of the science community’s "to do" list.



Now—a half-century later—researchers are delving headfirst back into the mysterious world of the crystal in the search for quantum memory storage capabilities. Quantum computers are now being developed with the help of superconductors and some of the world’s most brilliant scientist, and there is heavy investment from world governments, military installations and big name corporations into this exciting new realm. Quantum computers store memory as ‘qubits,’ or quantum bits, which can process memory in added dimensions—far more advanced than the traditional ‘bits’ that computers currently process.



The problem that is posed by quantum computing, however, is in storing data as memory. Computers currently store information as ‘bits,’ which are readable as sequences of 1s and 0s (binary code). But quantum computers do not store memory as bits, but rather as ‘qubits,’ or quantum bits, which can process memory in added dimensions—far more advanced than the traditional ‘bits’ that computers currently process. Therein lies the dilemma. How do you store qubits?



Traditional microchips do not have the capacity to store data in added quantum dimensions, but crystals are proving to be the solution. Researchers from the University of Calgary working with German colleagues at the University of Paderborn have solved the problem by creating a lithium niobate crystal doped with rare earth ions and chilled to -270 degrees Celsius. Without getting too technical, they found that by tuning the crystals to just the right frequency they are able to store qubits as holographic images embedded in the crystal’s molecular makeup by using lasers. Other researchers are even exploiting the properties of liquidized crystals to achieve the same holographic storage capabilities.



The bottom line is that crystals will undoubtedly replace microchips in the near future as computer manufacturers’ memory storage of choice; and IBM, Nintendo, Bayer Corp., and Lucent Technologies are just a few of the players actively pursuing this technology. Even DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)—the United States’ ‘fringe’ science research body—is investigating quantum computing and the storage capacity of crystals, especially in regards to nanotechnology.



A brave new world is on the horizon. Let’s just pray that these new computers—that are able to think in quantum dimensions beyond our own day-to-day understanding of reality—don’t someday rise up against us feeble-minded humans!