CANYON The liquid-crystal research going on here at West Texas A&M University borders on something you might see on an episode of ''Star Trek.''
With the blink of a laser beam, a few drops of liquid squeezed between a pair of thin glass plates stores three-dimensional optical data almost instantly. Meanwhile, a second laser reads the data and feeds it into a special device used to time the process.
It all happens in about 20 thousandths of a second.
''The bottom line really is to provide a less expensive way to store and retrieve information at higher speeds,'' said professor Gene Carlisle, who teaches optics and chemistry here.
Associated Press Photo
Carlisle, graduate student Manlin Pei and her husband, Yong-Jing Wang, have been using liquid crystal, a substance discovered more than 150 years ago, to store optical data in a potentially revolutionary new way.
The crystal typically is used as a display device when combined with electronics.
RCA introduced the first LED crystal display in 1968. Today it can be found in watches, clocks, calculators, hand-held computers and electronic organizers.
But Carlisle said this new kind of data storage may someday prove to revolutionize the size and shape of optical computing devices.
A pair of eyeglasses, for instance, could someday contain tiny components necessary to display images and data without the use of a bulky computer or monitor.
Images could be viewed, Carlisle said, in the spectacles' liquid crystal-injected lenses using only minimal circuitry. Because the technology uses low-voltage laser beams, the device might be powered by something as weak as a watch battery.
''It is so flexible in respect to its design,'' he said. ''We're talking about economics and flexibility of design.''
Pei, whose master's thesis centered on this technology, said part of the idea came from her husband, who works with optics in Amarillo.
''His major was optics. Mine is chemistry, so it just came together,'' she said.
Her research involves measuring the time it takes to store and retrieve the data. The reading process takes place within a cross section of a laser beam that is cut off and on by a timer.
The laser is split into two beams using a glass cube and mirrors. It shines through the glass and dyed liquid crystal and onto a piece of white paper. The result is two intense dots of light with several parallel diffracted light dots to either side.
By measuring the distance between the dots on the paper, Carlisle and Pei can determine the storage efficiency and how much data is being stored.
Solid crystals, such as a diamond and quartz, have long been hailed for their data-storage abilities.
There's just one problem. They're expensive. Carlisle has a set of optical crystals that cost about $3,000 each.
Liquid crystal, on the other hand, is available cheaply and in bulk at the local science wholesaler.
The substance is still a crystal, but because its molecular bond is weaker than that of, say, a diamond the hardest substance on Earth it behaves like a liquid, he said.
And when mixed with a special type of dye and squeezed between two pieces of glass the thickness of half a human hair, its data-storing capabilities soar.
Carlisle said he is still doing basic research, and widespread use of the liquid in this context may not happen for many years. But he said it shows promise.
''It's not going to make money in two years,'' Carlisle said. ''I think it's going to find some useful application in three to five years. It's not so esoteric that it can't be used in some (widespread) practical way in the next 100 to 200 years.''
There are still many facets of the crystal to be explored. For instance, how much data will it store? How can we make it store and read data even faster? Liquid crystal could someday be used for information processing, he said, much like silicone-based computer chips commonly used today.
But engineers will sort all that out later.
''I'm just in it for the fun,'' Carlisle said.
John Wise can be contacted at 766-8753 or firstname.lastname@example.org
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