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Due to the ultra-thin structure of the material, the negatively charged electron and the positively charged 'hole' it leaves behind in the atomic lattice stay bound together by the electrostatic attraction between them, forming what is known as an 'exciton'.

During this process, light is absorbed by the material and its energy is handed around amongst the material's molecules as a so-called "triplet exciton."

Kobori explains, "In solution systems, it is difficult to observe the magnetic properties of the electron spins due to the high-speed rotation of the molecules, and in conventional solid-state systems, the reaction efficiency is too low for electron spin resonance studies. The thin-film solid-state material used in our study, however, was suitable for observing the magnetic properties of electron spins and generating sufficient triplet exciton concentrations."

Two conflicting interpretations exist of the exciton's structure.

"We hypothesized that, in an exciton, two positively charged holes are more strongly bound than an electron-and-hole pair," adds first author Shinya Takahashi.