According to scientific journal, Laser Focus World, one of the biggest breakthroughs in photonics in 2023 is a single atomic layer spin-optical laser developed by Prof. Erez Hasman from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Prof. Elad Koren from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering.
Technion researchers developed a controlled coherent spin-optical laser based on a single atomic layer. According to the publication, this breakthrough “opens up new horizons for fundamental research and optoelectronic devices via exploiting both electron and photon spins.”
The innovative discovery, published in July 2023 in the prestigious journal, Nature Materials, enables spin control of photons emitted from two-dimensional material and paves the way for new photonic devices based on ‘atomic-scale spin-optics’.
Electromagnetic waves (light), which also behave as massless particles called photons, have an internal property – the ‘spin’ of the photons. Spin, which is the internal angular momentum of photons, depends on the circular polarization direction of light. The research takes advantage of this property of photons, paves the way for the study of spin-dependent coherent phenomena in both classical and quantum contexts, and opens new avenues for basic research and optoelectronic devices based on electrons and photons spins.
Photo: Researchers participating in the research at Prof. Erez Hasman’s Atomic-Scale Photonics Laboratory
Watch the video with the announcement (minute 02:57):
