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A material potentially exhibiting multiple crystalline phases with distinct optoelectronic properties can serve as a phase-change memory material. The sensitivity and kinetics can be enhanced when the two competing phases have large electronic structure contrast and the phase change process is diffusionless and martensitic. In this work, we theoretically and computationally illustrate that such a phase transition could occur in the group-IV monochalcogenide SnSe compound, which can exist in the quantum topologically trivial Pnma-SnSe and nontrivial $$Fm\bar 3m$$-SnSe phases. Furthermore, owing to the electronic band structure differences of these phases, a large contrast in the optical responses in the THz region is revealed. According to the thermodynamic theory for a driven dielectric medium, optomechanical control to trigger a topological phase transition using a linearly polarized laser with selected frequency, power and pulse duration is proposed. We further estimate the critical optical electric field to drive a barrierless transition that can occur on the picosecond timescale. This light actuation strategy does not require fabrication of mechanical contacts or electrical leads and only requires transparency. We predict that an optically driven phase transition accompanied by a large entropy difference can be used in an “optocaloric” cooling device. Researchers now theorize that memory devices which normally use temperature effects to store or retrieve information can be improved using laser-sensitive materials. Often found in rewritable optical disks, phase-change memory materials use heat variations to flip between glassy and crystal states. However, such changes can damage sensitive electronics. Jian Zhou from Xi’an Jiaotong University in China, Ju Li at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States, and colleagues propose that phase transformations in metal compounds such as tin–selenium (SnSe) may be initiated with lasers. Using quantum theory calculations, the team identified a SnSe phase transition that can be performed in just picoseconds. This topological phase transition between two quantum phases could lead to high-performance electronics. Thermodynamic analysis revealed that the rapid changes between the phases might also make SnSe materials effective refrigerants. Topologically electronic state receives great attention during the past decades, owing to their topologically protected metallic edge states. Topological phase transition between nontrivial and trivial states is thus intriguing for not only information storage but also for dissipationless information transport, which is usually driven by pressure or gate voltage. Triggering topological phase transition without physical contact fascinates the scientific community. Due to contrast band topology, the trivial and nontrivial topological materials possess different optical responses. Based on this, a novel non-contacting optical illumination scheme is predicted by first-principles calculations to drive topological phase transition in IV–VI semiconductors.

Normal-to-topological insulator martensitic phase transition in group-IV monochalcogenides driven by light