Shedding light on superconducting disorder

25-Sep-2024 - The importance of disorder in physics is only matched by the difficulty to study it. For example, the remarkable properties of high-temperature superconductors are greatly affected by variations in the chemical composition of the solid. Techniques that enable measurements of such disorder and its ...

Making high-temperature superconductivity disappear to understand its origin

Scientists have collected evidence suggesting that a purely electronic mechanism causes copper-oxygen compounds to conduct electricity without resistance at temperatures well above absolute zero

06-Feb-2020 - When there are several processes going on at once, establishing cause-and-effect relationships is difficult. This scenario holds true for a class of high-temperature superconductors known as the cuprates. Discovered nearly 35 years ago, these copper-oxygen compounds can conduct electricity ...

Lining up surprising behaviors of superconductor with one of the world's strongest magnets

Electrical resistance of a copper-oxide compound depends on the magnetic field in a very unusual way

10-Aug-2018 - What happens when really powerful magnets--capable of producing magnetic fields nearly two million times stronger than Earth's--are applied to materials that have a "super" ability to conduct electricity when chilled by liquid nitrogen? A team of scientists set out to answer this question in one ...

Unusual electronic state found in new class of unconventional superconductors

Finding gives scientists a new group of materials to explore to unlock secrets of some materials' ability to carry current with no energy loss

10-Dec-2014 - A team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Columbia Engineering, Columbia Physics and Kyoto University has discovered an unusual form of electronic order in a new family of unconventional superconductors. The finding, described in Nature ...

Scientists create nano-patterned superconducting thin films

Material's fluctuating response to a magnetic field could lead to switchable superconducting wires

16-Jun-2010 - A team of scientists from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has fabricated thin films patterned with large arrays of nanowires and loops that are superconducting — able to carry electric current with no resistance — when cooled ...

Scientists capture secret dance of electrons that causes them to change form

08-Jun-2010 - Scientists have captured the first images of electrons that appear to take on extraordinary mass under certain extreme conditions, thus solving a 25-year mystery about how electrons behave in metals. The discovery could help with the design of new materials for high-temperature ...

Absorbing hydrogen fluoride gas to enhance crystal growth

Newly patented method could improve superconductors, optical devices and microelectronics

15-Dec-2009 - Two scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a method to control the buildup of hydrogen fluoride gas during the growth of precision crystals needed for applications such as superconductors, optical devices, and microelectronics. The ...

Scientists detect 'fingerprint' of high-temp superconductivity above transition temperature

Method may help identify conditions needed to get current flowing at higher temperatures

01-Sep-2009 - A team of U.S. and Japanese scientists has shown for the first time that the spectroscopic "fingerprint" of high-temperature superconductivity remains intact well above the super chilly temperatures at which these materials carry current with no resistance. This confirms that certain conditions ...

Electron pairs precede high-temperature superconductivity

New method exploring 'energy gap' shows electron pairs exist before superconductivity sets in

07-Nov-2008 - Like astronomers tweaking images to gain a more detailed glimpse of distant stars, physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have found ways to sharpen images of the energy spectra in high-temperature superconductors. These new imaging methods confirm that ...

Scientists reveal effects of quantum 'traffic jam' in high-temperature superconductors

Findings may point to new materials to get the current flowing at higher temperatures

29-Aug-2008 - Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, in collaboration with colleagues at Cornell University, Tokyo University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Colorado, have uncovered the first experimental evidence for why the transition ...