[Physicist]

From computer simulations, the team found that shock waves passing through a crystal alter its properties as they compress it.

Vaporware alert. Lots of stuff looks good in simulation, only to fail in the real world.

The team is now collaborating with researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to demonstrate the effect.

This should read: "to discover whether there really is any such effect."

Initially they will generate shock waves by shooting bullets at photonic crystals. This would destroy the crystal, but not before the light has had time to shift. Eventually, sound waves should do the job just as well, they say. "It¹s really practical, and potentially even easier to do than with actual shock waves," says Reed.

I wonder why they don't try the sound method first. To bond a piezo to a photonic crystal, shine a laser on it, hook it up to a frequency generator and twiddle the knob sounds like the work of an afternoon.

[Junior]

Gives them an excuse to shoot guns.

I'm waiting for the New Age crowd to latch onto this research as some sort of vindication of their "crystal-power" beliefs.

[lafroste]

Stupid question department:

What is a photonic crystal? Composition? Are they exotically rare, or are they easy to obtain? I have never heard of them.

[DPB101]

the team found that shock waves passing through a crystal alter its properties as they compress it. For example, a crystal that normally allows red light through but reflects green light might become transparent to green light and reflect red light instead.

This have anything to do with the properties of Alexandrite. Or is that another phenomemon?