Researchers demonstrate how light can be used to manipulate electron valley

Researchers from the City College of New York have demonstrated how to manipulate the electron valley property in 2D semiconductors. This could be seen as a step towards the realization of valleytronics-based logic gates.

To control the valley, the researchers used a light trapping structure called a microcavity. The microcavity gives rise to half-light-half matter quasi-particles which have the fingerprint of the valley property. A laser can be used to optically control the quasi-particles in order to access the electrons occupying specific valley.