'Laser corkscrew' is a laser beam that manages to move atoms and electrons of the material it hits, generating a circular movement, which makes it magnetic like a magnet. Study published in the journal Nature shows for the first time that quantum behavior can be induced in a material even at room temperature.
“The result was unexpected, and it will probably take some time to understand the possible practical implications,” Stefano Bonetti of Stockholm University, Ca' Foscari di Venezia and Fondazione Rara, who coordinated the study, told ANSA. In an article that appeared in the same issue of Nature, another research group demonstrated that it is possible to write a magnetic bit (the unit of information in computer science) Using our approach, says Bonetti, ‘we have found a new way to create strong magnets from, in theory, any material.’ The study authors subjected a material called'strontium titanate' to short but intense laser pulses, which made it magnetic.