When light, not heat, causes melting

A lot of research has been done on how ordinary materials change phases, like melting or freezing.

Now, a group of researchers has noticed that the process is very different when they use intense laser light pulses to cause a phase change instead of changing the temperature.

Despite the fact that the process has not yet been observed and verified, scientists had long held the belief that this might be the case.Researchers may be able to harness the mechanism for use in new types of optoelectronic devices with this new understanding.