Light-tunability of material properties in energy conversion and information technology has applications in optical control of electronic phases, charge ordering, and interlayer correlations in highly correlated materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen, together with colleagues from Kiel University (CAU), Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron DESY, and the University of Göttingen, have successfully created a state in a crystalline material that is neither liquid nor crystalline.
The studied layered crystal, grown in Kiel by Kai Rossnagel’s team, is distinguished by minimal crystal structure distortion at room temperature due to the crystal’s unique structure, in which thin layers of metals and sulfur atoms are stacked on top of each other and only weakly bound. When these layers are attacked with ultrashort laser bursts, the distortion changes its orientation in a trillionth of a second, dramatically enhancing the material’s electrical conductivity. Although both distortions have an ordered structure and related crystalline features, a very disordered state can be observed during the transition.
To read more, click here.