New discovery settles long-standing debate about photovoltaic materials
(PHYSorg.com Physics)

Scientists have theorized that organometallic halide perovskites- a class of light harvesting `wonder` materials for applications in solar cells and quantum electronics- are so promising due to an unseen yet highly controversial mechanism called the Rashba effect. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy`s Ames Laboratory have now experimentally proven the existence of the effect in bulk perovskites, using short microwave bursts of light to both produce and then record a rhythm, much like music, of the quantum coupled motion of atoms and electrons in these materials.