Lithium Crystal Unlocks Potential Next-Gen Microchip

An employee of the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ, or Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum) poses next to the “Mistral” supercomputer, installed in 2016, at the German Climate Computing Center on June 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images

The next generation of microchips could be used for anything from navigating the moon’s surface to helping farmers determine whether the fruit is ready for harvest.

Lithium niobate is a lab-grown crystal discovered in the late 1940s that has come back in vogue as scientists search for alternatives to the silicon chips used in cars, phones and computers.