Laboratory equipment manufacturers could be interested in research into the rate at which lasers can affect the electrical properties of solids.
The study was conducted at Kiel University and is published in Nature, outlining how optoelectronics might be created with switching delays measured in femtoseconds.
Such a property could allow laboratory equipment manufacturers to build data links with latencies in the millionths of billionths of seconds.
In order to study the processes at work, the scientists created a method of filming the surfaces using ultra-short X-ray pulses.
"The amount of information gained from our pictures when played back in slow motion is vast," says Professor Michael Bauer of the university's Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics.
Earlier in 2011, the university reported how its professor of chemistry Rainer Herges had led a team in a study of the magnetic properties of a single molecule.
The researchers were able to manipulate magnetism in individual molecules at room temperatures, potentially allowing them to act as tiny switches.
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