Scientists have used pulses of light to 'sculpt' new energy paths for electrons in graphene, effectively rewriting the material's properties on the fly.
March 31, 2026
Original Paper
Observation of Floquet-induced gap in graphene
arXiv · 2603.28725
The Takeaway
Usually, a material’s behavior is fixed by its chemistry, but this experiment proves we can use light to create 'gaps' where electrons aren't allowed to exist. This allows researchers to turn a normal material into a custom-designed quantum state just by shining a laser on it.
From the abstract
Floquet engineering provides a powerful pathway for creating non-equilibrium phases of matter with tailored electronic structures and properties through time-periodic driving. As the original theoretical prototype, graphene established the framework in which the Floquet topological insulator with light-induced anomalous Hall effect was proposed. However, the defining spectroscopic signature of Floquet engineering in graphene--light-induced hybridization (avoided-crossing) gap at Floquet band cro