In Star
Trek, Dilithium is a
crystalline substance used mediates the reaction between the matter and
anti-matter in a starship's main engine core and dilithium crystals
control the powerful matter/antimatter reaction which permits the ship
to travel faster than light.
There does exist in real science a substance called dilithium - Li2 is
a diatomic molecule comprising two lithium atoms covalently bonded
together. Lithium in its pure form does not occur naturally on
Earth. It is a soft, silver white metal - the lightest of all metals,
in fact. It is used primarily in heat-transfer applications, batteries
(mainly cell phone and camera batteries), household appliances
such as toasters and microwaves, and in high performance alloys
such as those used for aircraft construction. Lithium is one of
only four elements theorized to have been created in the first
three minutes of the universe through a process called Big Bang
nucleosynthesis. While lithium is a metal, dilithium is only known in
the gas phase. It has been observed, for example, that 1% of lithium in
the vapor phase (by mass) is in the form of dilithium.
Fusion reactor: Move mouse pointer over image to see how it works how it works
Just as
the fictional dilithium in
Star Trek was an important source of fuel, lithium deuteride (compound
of lithium and hydrogen, LIH) was the fusion fuel of choice in early
versions of the hydrogen bomb. When bombarded by neutrons, both Li6 and
Li7 produce tritium. Tritium fuses with deuterium in a fusion reaction
that is relatively easy to achieve. Although details remain secret,
lithium apparently no longer plays a role in modern nuclear weapons,
having been replaced entirely for the purpose by elemental tritium,
which is lighter and easier to handle than lithium salts. Lithium will
be used to produce tritium in magnetically confined nuclear fusion
reactors using deuterium and tritium as the fuel. Tritium does not
occur naturally and will be produced by surrounding the reacting plasma
with a 'blanket' containing lithium where neutrons from the
deuterium-tritium reaction in the plasma will react with the lithium to
produce more tritium. Various means of doing this will be tested at the
experimentasl ITER fusion reactor being built at Cadarache, France.
Dilithium, as depicted in the Star Trek computer game Elite Force