Counting the 'Holes' in High-Temperature Superconductors
Thursday, March 25, 2010 - 16:35
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- As part of the effort to better understand how superconductors transport electricity with zero resistance, a team of researchers has demonstrated a new way to count the number of a material's "holes" - locations where electrons are absent. Knowing more about holes, which, like electrons, are thought to interact with each other to produce superconducting current within a material, could help scientists develop superconductors for applications like more-efficient power transmission or magnetic-levitation high-speed trains.