Phys.org April 21, 2021
An abrupt change in the Fermi surface topology, also called Lifshitz transition, can lead to the emergence of fascinating phenomena like colossal magnetoresistance and superconductivity.
Controlling the electrons’ arrangement has been a key topic for decades. An international team of researchers (Germany, Sweden, US – research organization) has massively cut down the switching time to only 100 femtoseconds by shooting ultrashort optical laser pulses at a semi-metallic crystal composed of tungsten and tellurium atoms. Shining light on the crystal encourages it to reorganize its internal electronic structure, which also changes the conductivity of the crystal. They were able to observe exactly how its electronic structure changed…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
A femtosecond burst of light drives an exotic electronic transition in a semi-metallic crystal, on an unprecedently fast timescale. Credit: © Beaulieu