«What I can contribute is to understand the role of the Casimir force in real working devices, such as microwave switches, MEMS oscillators and gyroscopes, that normally are made of silicon crystals, not perfect metals,» Tang says. (scientificamerican.com)
In contrast, Maldonado and a pair of grad students have developed a process for making silicon crystals at just 180 F, using a method they likened to making «rock candy» from sugar. (treehugger.com)
To do this, they first had to resolve silicon crystal lattice defects to a point where the cavities were essentially equivalent to those grown on lattice - matched gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrates. (sciencedaily.com)