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UrduA recent study shows that the superconducting edge currents in the topological material molybdenum telluride (MoTe2) can sustain large changes in the “glue” that keeps the superconducting electrons paired. To sustain these changes, the bulk and the edge of MoTe2 must behave differently. This surprise finding will help researchers create and control anyons and aid in the development of future energy-efficient electronics.
Tag: Superconductivity
What Makes High Temperature Superconductivity Possible? Researchers Get Closer to a Unified Theory
In cuprate materials, superconductivity competes with magnetic spin and electric charge density wave (CDW) order in the material’s electrons. In some of these materials, strong magnetic interaction causes spin density waves (SDW) and CDWs to lock together to form a stable long-range “stripe state” where the peaks and valleys of the two waves are aligned.
Putting a New Spin on 1T Phase Tantalum Disulfide
To unlock the complex structure and behavior of 1T Phase Tantalum Disulfide, researchers used the Pair Distribution Function (PDF) beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility located at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, to learn more about the material’s structure.
Staying in the Loop: How Superconductors are Helping Computers “Remember”
To advance neuromorphic computing, some researchers are looking at analog improvements–advancing not just software, but hardware too. Research from the UC San Diego and UC Riverside shows a promising new way to store and transmit information using disordered superconducting loops.
Researchers Craft New Way to Make High-Temperature Superconductors – With a Twist
An international team that includes Rutgers University–New Brunswick scientists has developed a new method to make and manipulate a widely studied class of high-temperature superconductors.
Plastic Deformation Engineering Dramatically Enhances Quantum Phenomena
Researchers have discovered that applying plastic deformation to the quantum material strontium titanate causes defects (known as dislocations) to organize themselves into repeating structures. These changes lead to improvements of strontium titanate’s superconducting and ferroelectric properties.
Researchers Test Quantum Theory with Precision-Engineered Thin Films
Comparing experimental results and theoretical calculations can be difficult for quantum materials. One solution is to use sample materials that isolate and emphasize an atomic line with one dimensional properties. In this study, scientists grew thin films of layered copper-oxygen materials to experimentally test theories of electron interaction in quantum materials. The study indicates that standard theory is not sufficient and requires a new term to fit the experimental data.
A foundation that fits just right gives superconducting nickelates a boost
Researchers at SLAC and Stanford found a way to make thin films of an exciting new nickel oxide superconductor that are free of extended defects. This improved the material’s ability to conduct electricity with no loss and revealed that it’s more like superconducting cuprates than previously thought.
First Direct Visualization of a Zero-Field Pair Density Wave
Scientists directly observed a pair-density wave (PDW) in an iron-based superconducting material with no magnetic field present. This state of matter, which is characterized by coupled pairs of electrons that are constantly in motion, had been thought to only arise when a superconductor is placed within a large magnetic field. This exciting result opens new potential avenues of research and discovery for superconductivity.
Physicists discover a new switch for superconductivity
Under certain conditions — usually exceedingly cold ones — some materials shift their structure to unlock new, superconducting behavior.
New superconducting diode could improve performance of quantum computers and artificial intelligence
A University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team has developed a more energy-efficient, tunable superconducting diode—a promising component for future electronic devices—that could help scale up quantum computers for industry and improve artificial intelligence systems.
“Y-Ball” Compound Yields Quantum Secrets
Scientists investigating a compound called “Y-ball” – which belongs to a mysterious class of “strange metals” viewed as centrally important to next-generation quantum materials – have found new ways to probe and understand its behavior.
Spin correlation between paired electrons demonstrated
Physicists at the University of Basel have experimentally demonstrated for the first time that there is a negative correlation between the two spins of an entangled pair of electrons from a superconductor.
Study finds nickelate superconductors are intrinsically magnetic
Scientists embedded elementary particles called muons into a nickel oxide superconductor to learn more about its magnetic properties. They discovered very different magnetic behavior than the best known unconventional superconductors, the cuprates, display.
The futuristic South Pole Telescope looks far back in time
Designed to detect the oldest light in the universe, the South Pole Telescope is helping researchers at Argonne and around the world to learn about the beginnings of the universe.
Study uncovers how structural changes affect the superconducting properties of a metal oxide
A team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers has discovered how subtle structural changes in strontium titanate, a metal oxide semiconductor, can alter the material’s electrical resistance and affect its superconducting properties. The research can help guide future experiments and materials design related to superconductivity and the creation of more efficient semiconductors for various electronic device applications.
After 20 years of trying, scientists succeed in doping a 1D chain of cuprates
After 20 years of trying, scientists doped a 1D copper oxide chain and found a surprisingly strong attraction between electrons that may factor into the material’s superconducting powers.
Tapping into magnets to clamp down on noise in quantum information
In a newly funded project, Argonne and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will explore coupling magnetism and microwaves. This research will yield new insights that should benefit quantum sensing, data transfer and computing.
Lighting Up Ultrafast Magnetism in a Metal Oxide
Scientists studied what happens when very short pulses of laser light strike a magnetic material. Understanding how magnetic correlations change over short timescales is the first step in being able to control magnetism for applications.
Mapping the Electronic States in an Exotic Superconductor
Scientists mapped the electronic states in an exotic superconductor. The maps point to the composition range necessary for topological superconductivity, a state that could enable more robust quantum computing.
New 2D superconductor forms at higher temperatures than ever before
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a new way to generate 2D superconductivity at an interface of an insulating oxide material, at a higher transition temperature than ever seen before for these materials.
Scientists glimpse signs of a puzzling state of matter in a superconductor
High-temperature superconductors conduct electricity with no loss, but no one knows how they do it. SLAC scientists observed the signature of an exotic state of matter called “pair density waves” in a cuprate superconductor and confirmed that it intertwines with another exotic state.
Magnetism Meets Topology on a Superconductor’s Surface
Scientists have found an energy band gap—an energy range where no electrons are allowed—opens at a point where two allowed energy bands intersect on the surface of an iron-based superconductor. This unusual electronic energy structure could be used for quantum information science and electronics.
Copperizing the Complexity of Superconductivity
Copper oxides have the highest superconducting transition temperatures under normal conditions, but physicists aren’t sure why. A group of international researchers may have stumbled upon a major clue that could help revolutionize our understanding of these superconductive materials.
The Room-Temperature Superconductor Arrives at Last
For the first time since superconductivity was discovered in 1911, scientists have created the world’s first superconductor that works at room temperature. To do so, they engineered a new material never before found on earth using a photochemical process to create a starting framework of hydrogen-rich materials. The finding has important implications for quantum computing and energy storage and production.
Brookhaven’s Ivan Bozovic Wins 2021 James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials
The American Physical Society has selected physicist Ivan Bozovic of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory as a co-recipient of the 2021 James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials. Bozovic and his collaborators were recognized “For pioneering the atomic-layer-by-layer synthesis of new metastable complex-oxide materials, and the discovery of resulting novel phenomena.”
New composite material revs up pursuit of advanced electric vehicles
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used new techniques to create a composite that increases the electrical current capacity of copper wires, providing a new material that can be scaled for use in ultra-efficient, power-dense electric vehicle traction motors.
SLAC researchers find evidence for quantum fluctuations near a quantum critical point in a superconductor
Theory suggests that quantum critical points may be analogous to black holes as places where all sorts of strange phenomena can exist in a quantum material. Now scientists say that they have found strong evidence that QCPs and their associated fluctuations exist in a cuprate superconductor.
Quantum Materials Quest Could Benefit From Graphene That Buckles
Graphene, an extremely thin two-dimensional layer of the graphite used in pencils, buckles when cooled while attached to a flat surface, resulting in beautiful pucker patterns that could benefit the search for novel quantum materials and superconductors, according to Rutgers-led research in the journal Nature. Quantum materials host strongly interacting electrons with special properties, such as entangled trajectories, that could provide building blocks for super-fast quantum computers. They also can become superconductors that could slash energy consumption by making power transmission and electronic devices more efficient.
Physicists Find Misaligned Carbon Sheets Yield Unparalleled Properties
A material composed of two one-atom-thick layers of carbon has grabbed the attention of physicists worldwide for its intriguing — and potentially exploitable — conductive properties.
New Advances in Superconductivity
The goal of room temperature superconductivity took a small step forward with a recent discovery by a team of Penn State physicists and materials scientists.
Electrons Line Dance in a Superconductor
Scientists have confirmed a theoretical prediction for high-temperature superconductors. In a superconductive state, like-charged electrons overcome their repulsion to pair up and flow freely. Different states of matter make superconductivity possible. One of those theorized states of matter is called a pair density wave. The scientists confirmed pair density waves using advanced microscopic imaging techniques.
Scientists Dive Deep Into Hidden World of Quantum States
A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed a technique that could lead to new electronic materials that surpass the limitations imposed by Moore’s Law.
Theoretical breakthrough shows quantum fluids rotate by corkscrew mechanism
Scientists performed simulations of merging rotating superfluids, revealing a peculiar corkscrew-shaped mechanism that drives the fluids into rotation without the need for viscosity.
Electrons Break Rotational Symmetry in Exotic Low-Temp Superconductor
This odd behavior may promote the material’s ability upon cooling to perfectly conduct electricity in a way unexplained by standard theories.
Scientists Observe Superconductivity in Two Meteorites
Researchers from UC San Diego and Brookhaven Laboratory in New York investigated a diverse population of meteorites. Among the 15 pieces of comets and asteroids studied, they found two with superconductive grains.
Argonne’s Valerii Vinokur awarded Fritz London Prize
Valerii Vinokur, a senior scientist and distinguished fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, has been awarded the Fritz London Memorial Prize for his work in condensed matter and theoretical physics.
How a Magnet Could Help Boost Understanding of Superconductivity
Physicists have unraveled a mystery behind the strange behavior of electrons in a ferromagnet, a finding that could eventually help develop high temperature superconductivity. A Rutgers co-authored study of the unusual ferromagnetic material appears in the journal Nature.
A joint venture at the nanoscale
Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory report fabricating and testing a superconducting nanowire device applicable to high-speed photon counting. This pivotal invention will allow nuclear physics experiments that were previously thought impossible.
Argonne delivers first cryomodule for Fermilab neutrino experiment accelerator
Through a collaboration with DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Argonne is supplying the first eight of 116 superconducting cavities that will create a stream of neutrinos for Fermilab’s Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).