Using spooky entangled light allows scientists to flip specific switches inside a material that a regular laser cannot touch.

Regular light can only do so much to change the internal states of a 2D material like monolayer WSe2. By using entangled photon pairs, researchers can exploit the Bell-state phase to selectively target bright or dark states. This level of control is mathematically impossible with classical light because it lacks the quantum correlation between photons. It essentially gives scientists a quantum remote control for the internal properties of matter. This could lead to new types of sensors that can see things regular cameras would completely miss. It represents a new way of interacting with matter at its most fundamental level.