Researchers create three-dimensional light fields to place electrons in new quantum states

The useful part

Using the same method, they were also able to excite electrons into quantum states that had been previously inaccessible in experiments. "With our method, we can generate electronic quantum states that have previously only been described theoretically and also make them spatially visible," explains Prof. They then superimposed these in a vacuum chamber to create 3D light fields, which they used to manipulate electrons.

How it works

• The researchers combined two laser beams of different colours, making their beams intersect at a single point and thus creating three-dimensional light fields the shape of which they were able to control.
• The key advantage of this procedure is that researchers can use 3D light fields to generate quantum states of electrons that were previously inaccessible in experiments.
• The researchers were able to simultaneously observe the changes in the electron states at short intervals.
• The researchers explain that the new method is particularly promising for the investigation of chiral molecules, which play a key role in biology and medicine.
• However, it can be very difficult to separate or distinguish between the two different forms.

What to take from it

University of Oldenburg / Matthias Knust) To generate the 3D light fields, the team superimposed two specially shaped femtosecond laser pulses. The latter are extremely short bursts of light that last just a few millionths of a billionth of a second. Chiral molecules exist in two forms which are mirror images of each other but cannot be superimposed, much like a pair of human left and right hands.

Example or evidence

• Dr Olga Smirnova of the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics in Berlin in an article published in the journal Science entitled "A New Age of Molecular Chirality".
• This approach opens up new experimental avenues for identifying chiral structures, controlling interactions between light and matter, and generating specific electronic quantum states, the researchers...
• "The fields oscillate in all three spatial directions, opening up new possibilities for investigating and controlling specific light-matter interactions," explains Darius Köhnke, one of the two lead authors...

Details worth keeping

Using three-dimensional light fields to control electrons Sep 30, 2026 Using three-dimensional light fields to control electrons Physicists generate 3D light fields that place electrons in previously inaccessible quantum states, opening new ways to study chiral molecules. Their method thus functioned like an ultra-high-speed camera for quantum processes: as with the stroboscopic flash lighting technique, they were able to capture the successive stages of the different electron states, forming a movie of their evolution. Their two forms frequently have different properties.

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