UW, UHK, and PNNL discover lasers trigger magnetism in atomically thin quantum materials
April 27, 2022
Researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and two university partners have discovered that light can trigger a form of magnetism in normally nonmagnetic quantum material. The researchers found that electrons within the material became oriented in the same direction when illuminated by photons from a laser—a finding that could have applications in the fields of quantum simulation, quantum computing, and more. The experiment, led by scientists at PNNL, the University of Washington and the University of Hong Kong, was published April 20 in Nature.