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Light tailors the electronic properties of a model semiconductor

When a semiconductor material called black phosphorus is hit with intense laser light, the behaviour of its electrons is found to change. The discovery opens a route to time-dependent engineering of exotic electronic phases in solids.
  1. Alberto Crepaldi

    1. Alberto Crepaldi is in the Department of Physics, Politecnico di Milano 20133 Milan, Italy.

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The atoms in a crystalline solid are arranged in space with a periodicity and symmetry that determine the physical properties of the material. These properties can therefore be modified by altering the crystal structure — for example, with pressure, strain or chemical substitution. But for many technological applications, controlling the properties of a crystal in time is just as important as changing them in space. Such temporal engineering has been successful in systems comprising groups of ultracold atoms arranged in lattices by means of intersecting laser beams1, and in electrically conductive materials2–4, but it is had not yet been achieved in semiconductors — until now. Writing in Nature, Zhou et al.5 report that the physical properties of black phosphorus (Fig. 1a), a model semiconductor, can be tailored through irradiation with intense laser light.

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Nature 614, 39-40 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00225-8

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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