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May. 27th, 2005 11:08 pmI think I have something like a quarter to a half of the circuitry mapped out and routed for the basic wiring of a standard lightsaber. It all depends on the power source, of course, which is going to be something of a bear- and which will, naturally, change the whole electrical mapping of the device. No biggie, I can live with that. But before I get that far there's something else I need, and that's gonna be the biggest stumbling block of all.
Everything I've ever read about lightsabers- and, admittedly, that's not as much as it should be- indicates that the heart of the saber is some kind of crystal. From what I understand they're supposed to be natural and sensitive to the Force, or something like that, which is... not really something I can help. I mean, I can only assume the crystals are from some planet in the Jedi Order's native galaxy, so that means they're probably well out of my reach. If I'm gonna do anything of the sort I'm going to have to synthesize a crystal. I don't know if that's allowed or not, but it's not like I have a choice, is it?
I've been studying crystallography for a while now, because I knew this was coming. It sounds to me from what I've been reading that it might just theoretically be possible to produce a crystal that makes it possible for the light portion of the blade to self-terminate. I need something that produces a net cancellation of the optical field far enough out to yield a viable blade instead of just terminating in the crystal's immediate vicinity- a crystal with a wavelength scale, periodic, dielectric microstructure with exactly the right photonic band gaps. Otherwise, the light's periodicity will couple forward and backward waves inside the crystal at the wrong places, causing a net cancellation of the optical field well before I need it. So, I'm going to have to start by growing my own photonic crystals and working my way up... oh, well. Since the only photonic crystals we've managed to successfully grow on a scientific basis have been opals, at least the ones I start making in practice will turn out useful for something. Romana might like them even if they're too small to be of much use.
Everything I've ever read about lightsabers- and, admittedly, that's not as much as it should be- indicates that the heart of the saber is some kind of crystal. From what I understand they're supposed to be natural and sensitive to the Force, or something like that, which is... not really something I can help. I mean, I can only assume the crystals are from some planet in the Jedi Order's native galaxy, so that means they're probably well out of my reach. If I'm gonna do anything of the sort I'm going to have to synthesize a crystal. I don't know if that's allowed or not, but it's not like I have a choice, is it?
I've been studying crystallography for a while now, because I knew this was coming. It sounds to me from what I've been reading that it might just theoretically be possible to produce a crystal that makes it possible for the light portion of the blade to self-terminate. I need something that produces a net cancellation of the optical field far enough out to yield a viable blade instead of just terminating in the crystal's immediate vicinity- a crystal with a wavelength scale, periodic, dielectric microstructure with exactly the right photonic band gaps. Otherwise, the light's periodicity will couple forward and backward waves inside the crystal at the wrong places, causing a net cancellation of the optical field well before I need it. So, I'm going to have to start by growing my own photonic crystals and working my way up... oh, well. Since the only photonic crystals we've managed to successfully grow on a scientific basis have been opals, at least the ones I start making in practice will turn out useful for something. Romana might like them even if they're too small to be of much use.
