First transparent metal

Up until now, transparent metal was the strict preserve of science-fiction films such as Star Trek. However, scientists at the University of Oxford, UK, have demonstrated that by subjecting aluminium to soft X-rays, it will become transparent for a brief period of time (40 femtoseconds). The Oxford team used the “FLASH” X-ray generator at the University of Hamburg in Germany to remove an electron from each atom in a sheet of aluminium. The resultant material is described as a new state of matter, and showed near-perfect transparency in the ultra-violet region of the spectrum. This exotic discovery is unlikely to have practical use in the near future, but undoubtedly forms a research path to explore other exotic states of matter.