Transparent aluminum

Transparent aluminum (or aluminium) is presently produced through the chemical bonding of aluminium with appropriate elements in transparent alumina and in ruby, corundum, sapphire, and related aluminium compounds. Traditional photonic bandgaps, based on introducing spatial holes in aluminium, are likewise possible, but these would require the introduction of numerous physical holes with roughly the diameter of the wavelengths of light for which transparency were desired; but such would presumably weaken aluminium structures.

Transparent aluminum, depicted as a futuristic material, appears in the Star Trek franchise.

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ALON

Main article: Aluminium oxynitride

ALON is the brand name of a transparent ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability, used primarily in military applications.

Transparent alumina

Main article: transparent alumina

Aluminium oxide, a chemical compound of aluminium and oxygen (Al₂O₃) is made transparent through a process of fusing fine particles.

Nanophase aluminium

Real transparent aluminium can and has been made by using nanophase aluminium. This is aluminium composed of nanometre scale particles as a solid transparent material, whose color can be varied by sizing the particles differently. The particles themselves are smaller than the wavelengths of visible light. Nanophase materials are usually transparent and very hard, with color depending on the size of the particles.

In fiction

Star Trek

In The Voyage Home, panels of acrylic glass were acquired for construction of water tanks with a thickness suitable for containing two humpback whales and tonnes of water. However, the Enterprise crew, without money appropriate to the period, found it necessary to barter with Plexicorp (a fictional manufacturer) for the materials required for the task. In exchange for the acrylic glass, Chief Engineer Scott shares the chemical formula for transparent aluminum. Although the molecular model shown on the computer screen is represented as transparent aluminum, it is actually that of Lexan, a polycarbonate resin made by GE Plastics.^{[citation needed]}

There is some question whether this transfer of technology actually results in a predestination paradox where transparent aluminum is actually never invented by anyone. Scotty, who gives the formula to Dr. Nichols in the twentieth century, implies that it was Dr. Nichols who may have introduced transparent aluminum to the world (thus allowing Scotty to learn the formula in the twenty-third century), raising the question of where the formula originated.

Star Trek technical manuals indicate transparent aluminum is used in various fittings in starships, including exterior ship portals and windows. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “In Theory,” a subspace anomaly alters the transparent aluminum windows creating a hull breach in the observation lounge.

Battlestar Galactica

An earlier reference to this fictional material was made on an episode of Battlestar Galactica (original 1978 series), the episode was "The Hand of God", aired April 29th, 1979. The reference was to the construction of the last of the ancient battlestar's astro-navigational domes, Apollo points out to Sheba that the dome was made from transparent aluminum.