Nearly Dissipationless Current Achieved Through Light-Induced Switch

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, along with collaborators from Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, have found a light-induced switch that twists the crystal lattice of the material and switches on an electron current that appears to be nearly dissipationless. The discovery was made in a class of topological materials that researchers believe holds great promise for spintronics, topological effect transistors, and quantum computing. The materials in question, Weyl and Dirac semimetals, are able to host exotic, nearly dissipationless, electron conduction properties that take advantage of the unique state in the crystal lattice and electronic structure of the...