The potential of quantum technology is huge but is today largely limited to the extremely cold environments of laboratories. Now, researchers from Stockholm University, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Ca' Foscari University of Venice have succeeded in demonstrating for the very first time how laser light can induce quantum behavior at room temperature—and make non-magnetic materials magnetic. The breakthrough is expected to pave the way for faster and more energy-efficient computers, information transfer and data storage.
Within a few decades, the advancement of quantum technology is expected to revolutionize several of society's most important areas and pave the way for completely new technological possibilities in communication and energy. Of particular interest for researchers in the field are the peculiar and bizarre properties of quantum particles—which deviate completely from the laws of classical physics and can make materials magnetic or superconducting.
By increasing the understanding of exactly how and why this type of quantum states arise, the goal is to be able to control and manipulate materials to obtain quantum mechanical properties.
So far, researchers have only been able to induce quantum behaviors, such as magnetism and superconductivity, at extremely cold temperatures. Therefore, the potential of quantum research is still limited to laboratory environments.
Now, a research team from Stockholm University and the Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics (NORDITA) in Sweden, the University of Connecticut and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in U.S., the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, the Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste, the "Sapienza" University of Rome and the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in Italy, is the first in the world to demonstrate in an experiment how laser light can induce magnetism in a non-magnetic material at room temperature.
In the study, published in Nature, the researchers subjected the quantum material strontium titanate to short but intense laser beams of a peculiar wavelength and polarization, to induced magnetism.
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