The results have important implications for today’s TV and display screens and for future technologies where light takes the place of electrons and fluids.

Just as pressing a guitar string produces a higher pitch, sending laser light through a material can shift it to higher energies and higher frequencies. Now scientists have discovered how to use this phenomenon to explore quantum materials in a new and much more detailed way.

A pioneer in clean energy technology at Stanford and SLAC, he is one of eight scientists and engineers honored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

These fleeting disruptions, seen for the first time in lead hybrid perovskites, may help explain why these materials are exceptionally good at turning sunlight into electrical current in solar cells.