http://phys.org/physics-news/superconductivity/ en-us Phys.Org provides the latest news on superconductivity (Phys.org) —Rice University physicists on the hunt for the origins of high-temperature superconductivity have published new findings this week about a material that becomes "schizophrenic"—simultaneously exhibiting the characteristics of both a metallic conductor and an insulator. http://phys.org/news284361515.html Physics - Superconductivity Fri, 05 Apr 2013 06:18:44 EST news284361515 (Phys.org) —Superconductors can radically change energy management as we know it, but most are commercially unusable because they only work close to absolute zero. A research group at EPFL has now published an innovative approach that may help us understand and use superconductivity at more realistic temperatures. http://phys.org/news284277408.html Physics - Superconductivity Thu, 04 Apr 2013 06:57:26 EST news284277408 Superconductors are materials which conduct electric currents without any resistance. At the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, an international research team headed by Professor Andrea Cavalleri from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter managed to selectively influence this resistance-free conductivity with a powerful terahertz laser. This very precise laser light turns into a vortex which moves through the superconductor like a tsunami. The results will be published in the scientific journal Nature Materials. http://phys.org/news284201437.html Physics - Superconductivity Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:50:46 EST news284201437 (Phys.org) —To engineers, it's a tale as old as time: Electrical current is carried through materials by flowing electrons. But physicists at the University of Illinois and the University of Pennsylvania found that for copper-containing superconductors, known as cuprates, electrons are not enough to carry the current. http://phys.org/news282899836.html Physics - Superconductivity Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:17:26 EST news282899836 A multi-university team of researchers has artificially engineered a unique multilayer material that could lead to breakthroughs in both superconductivity research and in real-world applications. http://phys.org/news281521307.html Physics - Superconductivity Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:00:12 EST news281521307 Identifying the mysterious mechanism underlying high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) remains one of the most important and tantalizing puzzles in physics. This remarkable phenomenon allows electric current to pass with perfect efficiency through materials chilled to subzero temperatures, and it may play an essential role in revolutionizing the entire electricity chain, from generation to transmission and grid-scale storage. Pinning down one of the possible explanations for HTS—fleeting fluctuations called charge-density waves (CDWs)—could help solve the mystery and pave the way for rapid technological advances. http://phys.org/news280917160.html Physics - Superconductivity Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:00:26 EST news280917160 (Phys.org)—For a long time, scientists and engineers have longed for a material that would conduct electricity at room temperature without any losses. More than 25 years ago scientists first discovered materials that were superconducting at relatively high temperatures: the cuprate-superconductors (copper-based superconductors). Iron-based high-temperature superconductors – a new class of materials discovered only a few years ago – also have this property. Together with Chinese and German collaborators, scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen (Switzerland) have now gained new insights into these superconductors. The experimental results indicate that magnetic interactions are of fundamental importance in the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity. This knowledge could contribute to the development of superconductors with improved technical properties in the future. http://phys.org/news280660687.html Physics - Superconductivity Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:18:22 EST news280660687 (Phys.org)—Cornell researchers have resolved a longstanding theoretical debate about the electronic structure of iron-based superconductors by directly observing it at the atomic scale. The work is reported in the Feb. 24 online edition of the journal Nature Physics. http://phys.org/news280657672.html Physics - Superconductivity Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:28:06 EST news280657672 Over the last quarter century, scientists have discovered a handful of materials that can be converted from magnetic insulators or metals into "superconductors" able to carry electrical current with no energy loss-an enormously promising idea for new types of zero-resistance electronics and energy-storage and transmission systems. At present, a key step to achieving superconductivity (in addition to keeping the materials very cold) is to substitute a different kind of atom into some positions of the "parent" material's crystal framework. Until now, scientists thought this process, called doping, simply added more electrons or other charge carriers, thereby rendering the electronic environment more conducive to the formation of electron pairs that could move with no energy loss if the material is held at a certain chilly temperature. http://phys.org/news280310982.html Physics - Superconductivity Sun, 17 Feb 2013 13:00:10 EST news280310982 A team of researchers from Russia, Spain, Belgium, the U.K. and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory announced findings last week that may represent a breakthrough in applications of superconductivity. http://phys.org/news279966080.html Physics - Superconductivity Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:30:07 EST news279966080 The strong magnetic fields of an MRI scanner or a particle accelerator are generated efficiently by electromagnets that have superconducting wire in their coils. A group of scientists has discovered how to make better wires using a promising material known as Bi-2212. With this discovery comes the possibility of creating magnetic fields in excess of 30 Tesla, three to four times higher than those generated by present accelerator magnet technology. http://phys.org/news279278580.html Physics - Superconductivity Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:23:10 EST news279278580 (Phys.org)—When it comes to high-temperature superconductors, a class of materials called cuprates is king, and it is science's ongoing quest to determine their exact physical subtleties. Cornell physicists and materials scientists have now verified that cuprates respond differently when adding electrons versus removing them, resolving a central issue about the compounds' most fundamental properties. http://phys.org/news277552076.html Physics - Superconductivity Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:48:02 EST news277552076 (Phys.org)—The road to a sustainably powered future may be paved with superconductors. When chilled to frigid temperatures hundreds of degrees Celsius below zero, these remarkable materials are singularly capable of perfectly conducting electric current. To meet growing global energy demands, the entire energy infrastructure would benefit tremendously from incorporating new electricity generation, storage, and delivery technologies that use superconducting wires. But strict limits on temperature, high manufacturing costs, and the dampening effects of high-magnetic fields currently impede widespread adoption. http://phys.org/news277023026.html Physics - Superconductivity Thu, 10 Jan 2013 06:50:39 EST news277023026 (Phys.org)—An efficient, robust, and compact wind power plant with a 10 MW superconducting generator is being developed by partners from industry and science within the recently established EU project SUPRAPOWER. Superconduction enables considerable savings of energy and raw materials. Within SUPRAPOWER, researchers at KIT's Institute for Technical Physics (ITEP) develop a rotating cryostat cooling the superconducting coils down to minus 253°C - a temperature crucial for electric current flow without resistance. http://phys.org/news276513654.html Physics - Superconductivity Fri, 04 Jan 2013 09:48:32 EST news276513654 (Phys.org)—By doping a bismuth-based layered material with silver, Chinese scientists demonstrated that superconductivity is intrinsic to the new material rather than stemming from its impurities. http://phys.org/news275224294.html Physics - Superconductivity Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:11:41 EST news275224294 (Phys.org)—Scientists from the University of Tübingen, working with colleagues from Tel Aviv University and the Kiel University have proposed [1] and experimentally demonstrated [2] a new type of superconducting element – named the φ-Josephson junction. Implemented in cryogenic devices, this element will make superconducting electronic circuits work practically "by themselves" and improve functionality. The scientists have published their results in the journal Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news275042014.html Physics - Superconductivity Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:33:41 EST news275042014 Researchers at The Open University have devised a new method to understand the processes that happen when atoms cool which could lead to new materials for superconducting power grids and widespread use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). http://phys.org/news274609513.html Physics - Superconductivity Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:25:18 EST news274609513 (Phys.org)—The next generation of sustainable energy systems, from magnetic storage to offshore wind turbines, hinges in part on high-temperature superconductors (HTS), which can carry current with zero loss and perfect efficiency. Unfortunately, that loss-free behavior comes at the cost of extreme and inefficient cooling, and the fundamental physics that governs the behavior of these remarkable materials remains mysterious. http://phys.org/news273396129.html Physics - Superconductivity Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:22:16 EST news273396129 (Phys.org)—A team led by SLAC and Stanford scientists has made an important discovery toward understanding how a large group of complex copper oxide materials lose their electrical resistance at remarkably high temperatures. http://phys.org/news272186909.html Physics - Superconductivity Thu, 15 Nov 2012 07:28:56 EST news272186909 Superconductivity describes the state of certain materials when they conduct electric currents without any resistance. For superconductivity to develop, these materials generally have to be cooled to temperatures below roughly –140 °C, depending on the material. The family of materials that requires the least amount of cooling is known as cuprate superconductors. These compounds are therefore technologically interesting, but scientists are still working to understand the fundamental mechanism underlying superconductivity in these materials. In fact, determining what makes cuprate superconductors tick is one of the grand challenges in condensed-matter physics. http://phys.org/news271668674.html Physics - Superconductivity Fri, 09 Nov 2012 08:00:01 EST news271668674 (Phys.org)—Physicists describe how they have synthesized a new material that belongs to the iron-selenide class of superconductors, called LixFe2Se2(NH3)y, in a paper about to be published in EPJ B. The work was carried out by Ernst-Wilhelm Scheidt from the University of Augsburg and colleagues. This material displays promising superconducting transition temperatures of 44 Kelvins (K) at ambient pressure, thus improving upon traditional copper-based high-temperature superconductors. http://phys.org/news270728051.html Physics - Superconductivity Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:30:05 EST news270728051 (Phys.org)—Researchers from the University of Leipzig have found that doping very small flakes of graphite with water, then allowing it to dry, results in a material that behaves very much like a superconductor. The team, led by Pablo Esquinazi have written a paper describing their process and results and have had it published in the peer review journal Advanced Materials. If their findings prove sound, the discovery would almost certainly revolutionize the electronics industry. http://phys.org/news267253615.html Physics - Superconductivity Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:07:10 EST news267253615 In previous research, the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) discovered that iron telluride compounds [Fe(Te,S) system], which are iron-based superconducting related substances, become superconductors when simmered in alcoholic beverages. In current research, NIMS and the Institute for Advanced Biosciences of Keio University identified substances in alcoholic beverages that induce superconductivity. http://phys.org/news266657898.html Physics - Superconductivity Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:38:32 EST news266657898 An international team led by University of Toronto physicists has developed a simple new technique using Scotch poster tape that has enabled them to induce high-temperature superconductivity in a semiconductor for the first time. The method paves the way for novel new devices that could be used in quantum computing and to improve energy efficiency. http://phys.org/news266584982.html Physics - Superconductivity Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:23:15 EST news266584982 Swiss research in atomic scale magnetism could play a role in the development of new materials that could permit lossless electricity transmission. http://phys.org/news265978589.html Physics - Superconductivity Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:56:35 EST news265978589 (Phys.org)—As electricity travels from power plants and into homes, a large amount of the initial energy dissipates as heat along the way. This inefficiency comes from a resistance to current inherent to the metallic cables used to deliver the electricity. High-temperature superconductors, however, manage to transmit energy without loss, providing a potential conduit for efficient and inexpensive power distribution all over the globe. Unfortunately, the mechanism underlying these remarkable materials remains unknown, hampering the development of more advanced materials to provide that loss-free flow of electricity.  http://phys.org/news265959715.html Physics - Superconductivity Tue, 04 Sep 2012 06:42:11 EST news265959715 A superconductor, which can move electrical energy with no wasteful resistance, is the holy grail of cost-effective, efficient, and "green" power production. Unlike traditional conductors such as copper or silver, which waste power resources and lose energy when they heat up, an ideal superconductor would continuously carry electrical current without losing any power. http://phys.org/news265291268.html Physics - Superconductivity Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:01:16 EST news265291268 (Phys.org)—Many researchers studying superconductivity strive to create a clean, pure, perfect sample, but a team of physicists found that some flaws might hold the key to a material's unique abilities. http://phys.org/news264932611.html Physics - Superconductivity Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:50:05 EST news264932611 Whether a material conducts electricity without losses is not least a question of the right temperature. In future it may be possible to make a more reliable prediction for high-temperature superconductors. These materials lose their resistance if they are cooled with liquid nitrogen, which is relatively easy to handle. http://phys.org/news264416701.html Physics - Superconductivity Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:20:04 EST news264416701 (Phys.org) -- Researchers at Stanford have been investigating the special properties of a Josephson junction when constructed as hybrid superconducting-topological insulator devices and have found what appears to be some unconventional behavior. In their paper published in Physical Review Letters, they describe how in applying a superconductor-topological insulator to a Josephson junction, the diffraction that occurs appears to differ from theoretical theories. http://phys.org/news263023528.html Physics - Superconductivity Wed, 01 Aug 2012 07:05:44 EST news263023528