Light may unlock a new quantum dance for electrons in graphene

A team of researchers has devised a simple way to tune a hallmark quantum effect in graphene—the material formed from a single layer of carbon atoms—by bathing it in light. Their theoretical work, which was published recently in Physical Review Letters , suggests a way to realize novel quantum behavior that was previously predicted but has so far remained inaccessible in experiments.

"Our idea is to use light to engineer these materials in place," says Tobias Grass, a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) and a co-author of the paper. "The big advantage of light is its flexibility. It's like having a knob that can change the physics in your sample."