Phys.org  May 11, 2022 Recently it was experimentally demonstrated that strong non-resonant few-cycle laser pulses can be used to induce phase-controllable currents along gold–silica–gold nanojunctions in the absence of a bias voltage. Since the effect depends on a highly non-equilibrium state of matter, its microscopic origin is unclear and the subject of recent controversy. An international team of researchers (Germany, USA – SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, University of Rochester, Georgia State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Canada) has presented atomistically detailed electronic transport simulations that recover the main experimental observations and offered a simple intuitive picture of the effect. The […]