By Peter Weiss
Organic crystals composed of complex, carbon-based molecules offer scientists an abundance of features to manipulate when they’re devising novel materials.
Now, researchers at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis St. Paul have programmed a property into an organic crystal by crafting the shape of a component molecule.
The researchers demonstrated that they could custom design a crystal to double the frequency of light passing through it. While many crystals have that optical ability, intentionally creating a particular crystal architecture that can lead to that trait is new, says Michael D. Ward, who led the research. He and his colleagues describe their work in the Nov. 30 Science.