An international team of physicists has shown that an extremely short pulse of light can be used to convert an insulator into a metal, allowing an electrical current to be switched on and off for intervals as short as a few femtoseconds. The technology could be used to create transistors that are 10,000 times faster than those available today. The effect could also form the basis of a cheap and easy way of characterizing ultrafast laser pulses – something that is currently very expensive to do.

via Laser pulse makes insulator conduct like a metal – physicsworld.com.