when-light-and-electro

An infrared pulse (blue) excites the electron dynamics in bulk Na3Bi. Due to strong spin-orbit coupling, the ‘spin-up’ electrons (red arrow) and ‘spin-down’ electrons (blue arrow) follow different motion, which can be tracked by the emitted harmonic light (blue and violet pulses). Credit: Nicolas Tancogne-Dejean / Jörg Harms, MPSD