code: private static byte[] convertClearTextToByteArray(String clearText) {
          byte[] result = new byte[clearText.length() * 2];
          for (int i = 0; i < clearText.length(); i++) {
              char thisChar = clearText.charAt(i);
              int pos = i * 2;
              result[pos] = (byte) (thisChar >>> 8 & 0xFF);
              result[pos + 1] = (byte) (thisChar & 0xFF);
          }
          return result;
      }
docs: Convert the clear text to a byte array by splitting each 16-bit character
  into 2 bytes. This insures that no data is lost.