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As it happens, rubies are one of Dr Subramanian's inspirations.
碰巧，紅寶石是Subramanian博士的靈感之一。
His hope is that by piggybacking on the structure of their crystals—
他希望借助它們晶體的結(jié)構(gòu)—
already known to yield an appropriately, well, ruby, colour—he might be able to reproduce the effect.
已知能夠產(chǎn)生適當(dāng)?shù)募t寶石色—他也許能重現(xiàn)這種效果。
A weakness of this approach is that rubies themselves make an unsatisfactory pigment. When crushed, they become pale pink.
這種方法的一個弊端在于紅寶石本身不能產(chǎn)生令人滿意的色素。當(dāng)它們被壓碎時，就會變成淡粉色。
A second avenue may be more promising. Many inorganic reds, including those based on cadmium, lead and mercury, are semiconductors.
第二種方法或許更有希望。很多無機紅色，包括那些基于鎘、鉛和汞的紅色都是半導(dǎo)體。
Dr Subramanian and his team hope to use tin—a metal in the same group of the periodic table as lead—
Subramanian博士和他的小組希望利用錫—一種在周期表中和鉛屬同一組的金屬—
to produce a similarly vibrant, though non-toxic, semiconductor pigment.
生產(chǎn)一種同樣鮮艷但無毒的半導(dǎo)體色素。
Inevitably, the semiconductor approach does bring problems of its own.
半導(dǎo)體方法本身也會帶來不可避免的問題。
A semiconductor's colour depends on a phenomenon called its band gap. This is the ease with which its atoms can shed electrons.
一個半導(dǎo)體的顏色取決于一種被稱為帶隙的現(xiàn)象，因此它的原子可以輕易地釋放電子。
The process of shedding requires energy, often in the form of light,
脫落的過程需要能量，通常以光的形式，
so a substance's band gap helps determine which frequencies of light it absorbs and which it reflects.
因此，物質(zhì)的帶隙有助于確定它吸收和反射的光的頻率。
Unfortunately, band gaps can, themselves, be altered by exposure to energy in the form of heat or light. That changes the pigment's colour.
不幸的是，帶隙本身可以通過暴露于熱或光形式的能量中而改變。這就改變了色素的顏色。
For example, mercury sulphide, known to painters as vermilion, has a small band gap.
例如，硫化汞，被畫家稱為朱紅色，有一個小的帶隙。
This means it absorbs much of the visible spectrum, reflecting only red because red light is insufficiently energetic to shift the relevant electrons.
這意味著它吸收了大部分可見光譜，只反射紅光，因為紅光的能量不足以轉(zhuǎn)移相關(guān)的電子。
If the gap is diminished still more, as sometimes happens when vermilion is exposed to light,
如果帶隙進一步縮小，就像有時朱紅色暴露在陽光下所發(fā)生的那樣
the pigment absorbs all visible light and turns black. Making a semiconducting red is not enough, then.
色素會吸收所有可見光并變成黑色。因此，制造半導(dǎo)體紅色是不夠的。
It also needs to stay red when in use. And that essential property remains elusive.
它還需要在使用過程中保持紅色。而這一基本屬性仍然難以捉摸。
Dr Subramanian and his team have got close. The tin approach has resulted in some promising flame-bright superconducting oranges.
Subramanian博士而他的小組已經(jīng)接近成功。錫方法已經(jīng)產(chǎn)生了一些有希望的鮮如火焰的超導(dǎo)橘色。
But shrinking the band gaps of such materials just that little bit further, to the point where a brilliant red is reflected instead,
但進一步縮小這種材料的帶隙直到反射出明亮的紅色
has so far proved beyond their chemical skills.
到目前為止，他們的化學(xué)技能還無法證明。
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