Tracking down nano-size current loops using polarized neutrons
Friday, September 11, 2015 - 09:20
in Physics & Chemistry
Determining the origin of high-temperature superconductivity is probably the single most important challenge faced today by solid-state physicists. This despite 30 years of extensive research efforts. High temperature superconductors are actually rather bad electrical conductors at room temperature. If they are cooled, they form a so-called "pseudogap phase" where electricity is conducted in a rather peculiar manner, with preferential directions. When cooled further, to temperatures easily reached using cheap and abundant liquid nitrogen, the electrical resistivity in the whole material falls to zero and the material becomes a superconductor.