Insulator turned into conductor in quadrillionth of a second
A Russia-Germany research collaboration has used femtosecond (millionths of a billionth of a second) laser pulses to make an insulating material conduct electricity. The team converted Mott insulators, which impede electron flow at low temperatures. Computers could theoretically be made around 1000 times faster by "turbo-charging" their electrical components with light pulses, noted researchers.