Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames
Laboratory are revealing the mysteries of new materials using ultra-fast laser
spectroscopy, similar to high-speed photography where many quick images reveal
subtle movements and changes inside the materials. Seeing these dynamics is one
emerging strategy to better understanding how new materials work, so that we
can use them to enable new energy technologies.
Physicist Jigang Wang and his colleagues recently used
ultra-fast laser spectroscopy to examine and explain the mysterious electronic
properties of iron-based superconductors. Results appeared in Nature
Communications this month.