Light induced magnetisation

Scientists at Ohio State University, USA, have produced magnetisation in an organic material that is induced by light. The material called tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) was seen to have its magnetisation increased by 50 per cent on exposure to blue light. Interestingly, this effect was undone by exposure to green light. Scientists believe that this effect could be used for information storage in the organic media. As opposed to the currently used magneto-optic information storage that only works in the write mode, this process enables read-write storage.