Division of Low Temperature Physics in collaboration with Department of Physics, Tohoku University found a new mechanism of the metal-insulator transition induced by applying laser light to organic Mott insulators. The collaboration team succeeded to realize an optical modulation of the effective on-site Coulomb energy at the molecular dimer site of the organic Mott insulator. The present technique will develop new photo-induced phenomena in future. This result was published in Physical Review Letters (PRL 7, August 2009) and reported in news paper (Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, on August 25, 2009).
On-site Coulomb repulsion energy U becomes weak by modulating
the molecular arrangement by applying laser light.
This change brings novel type of photo-induced insulator-metal transition.