Washington State University doctoral student Marianne Tarun made a discovery by accident. Her lab error uncovered a new way to boost electrical conductivity of a crystal by 40,000 percent. All she needed to do was expose it to light.

She accidentally left a sample of strontium titanate out on a counter before testing the crystal's conductivity before discovery the phenomenon.

Her team suggests that the photons knock loose electrons which boost the material's conductivity. She followed up with tests to confirm the effect and found that as little as 10 minutes of light exposure could propagate the effects for days.

The accidental discovery holds a great deal of practical potential. It works at room temperature, unlike superconductors which only function at a fraction of a degree from absolute zero.

"The discovery of this effect at room temperature opens up new possibilities for practical devices," said Matthew McCluskey, co-author of the paper and chair of WSU's physics department, in a press statement. "In standard computer memory, information is stored on the surface of a computer chip or hard drive. A device using persistent photoconductivity, however, could store information throughout the entire volume of a crystal."

[WSU]



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