https://phys.org/physics-news/superconductivity/ en-us The latest news on superconductivity Superconductivity has many important practical applications, including creating powerful magnets used in high-resolution medical scans, transporting electricity efficiently and building ultrasensitive measuring devices. Until now, understanding exactly what lay behind this unique phenomenon at high temperatures has eluded scientists over many decades. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-gun-mystery-high-temperature-superconductivity.html Superconductivity Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:00:07 EDT news711718201 The researchers in the Quantum Detection Microscopy group at CIC nanoGUNE, in collaboration with chemists at CiQUS of the University of Santiago de Compostela, have demonstrated that adding or removing a single molecule from a quantum chain can fundamentally change its interaction with a superconductor. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-odd-molecule-difference-quantum-world.html Superconductivity Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:20:06 EDT news711362070 Every time a computer stores or erases information, it uses energy. The amount is tiny for a single operation, but those operations happen billions of times every second. For decades, scientists have wondered just how little energy a memory device could use before reaching the fundamental theoretical limit set by the laws of physics. Now, researchers have shown that it is possible to come close. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-tiny-magnetic-whirlpool-kind-ultra.html Superconductivity Wed, 14 Oct 2026 12:40:08 EDT news711192421 Quantum information systems could one day shape everyday life through faster computing, sharper sensing and more secure communication. A new result from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U. of I.) marks an important step toward enabling magnetic spins—a quantum property of matter that can be used to store and manipulate information—to play a role in the future of quantum information processing. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-superconducting-circuit-street-quantum.html Superconductivity Wed, 14 Oct 2026 12:20:02 EDT news711191581 You sit down to meditate. A conversation returns, then thoughts. You bring your attention back to the breath. Sometimes, after many such returns, the effort eases. Thoughts lose their urgency, while awareness remains clear. Less occupies the mind, yet the moment still feels whole. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-meditation-reveal-su3-symmetry-universe.html General Physics Tue, 13 Oct 2026 17:40:08 EDT news711105159 Superconductors, materials that can carry electric current with an electrical resistance of zero, have proved to be promising for the development of various technologies, including medical devices, particle accelerators and quantum computers. Studying these materials could help researchers uncover new physical states that could be useful for specific applications. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-electronic-stripes-linked-unusual-vortex.html Condensed Matter Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:00:11 EDT news710410734 Unconventional superconductors can host unusual electronic states, but understanding what drives their superconductivity becomes difficult when different forms of order coexist. The kagome metal CsV3Sb5 has become a particularly debated example. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-quantum-material-superconducting-states-conflicting.html Condensed Matter Wed, 07 Oct 2026 13:00:09 EDT news710593381 Physicists with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Grainger College of Engineering have identified a new form of superconducting behavior. Experiments on the metal uranium ditelluride reveal that Cooper pairs, the composite electron units responsible for superconductivity, can organize into nonuniform patterns that exist even when the main superconducting phase is absent. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-cooper-pairs-superconducting-critical-temperature.html Superconductivity Sat, 03 Oct 2026 07:00:01 EDT news710216698 Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with no resistance and expel magnetic fields when cooled to ultralow temperatures. And depending on their quantum structure, they can also showcase strange properties like magnetic levitation. But now things are getting a little weirder. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-superconductor-reversal-symmetry.html Superconductivity Fri, 02 Oct 2026 17:00:01 EDT news710164361 Scientists have confirmed the existence of a predicted room temperature superconductor, while explaining the microscopic mechanism that distinguishes it from a similar one discovered several years ago. The work, published in the journal Physical Review B, offers "a theoretical blueprint for the future design of superior superconductor hydrides" the physicists write. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scandium-electrons-room-temperature-superconductivity.html Condensed Matter Tue, 29 Sep 2026 11:30:05 EDT news709897818 Superconductors can carry electrical current without resistance, but only up to a maximum value known as the critical current. The critical current is a crucial figure of merit for applications, and materials science has long been focused on increasing this limit. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) have now shown that, in type-II superconductors, this conventional limit can be exceeded when the current is applied for only a few picoseconds. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-picosecond-pulses-superconductors-critical-current.html Superconductivity Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:00:01 EDT news709467061 Quantum materials do things ordinary materials cannot. They carry current without any loss, or conduct only along their outer edge while the inside insulates. Future quantum computers and quantum sensors will run on materials like these. To improve them, researchers need to see exactly where currents and magnetic fields run at the nanoscale. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-vertical-quantum-sensor-reveal-nanoscale.html Superconductivity Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:20:06 EDT news709464484 Researchers at the Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), a center within Japan's National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), discovered that atomic-scale steps can guide superconducting vortices in an ultrathin superconductor. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-atom-high-rails-superconducting-vortices.html Condensed Matter Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:00:01 EDT news709464377 Scientists at Warwick have shown that a material treated for 40 years as a uniform, textbook superconductor is in fact a patchwork of different crystal structures throughout its bulk, using an advanced 3D imaging technique to see deep inside the crystal for the first time. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-chemists-overturn-year-assumption-key.html Superconductivity Thu, 17 Sep 2026 19:00:01 EDT news708870791 Cornell physicists have discovered that minimizing disorder, not varying electron count, is the key factor for controlling superconductivity in the unique material iron selenide (FeSe), a new insight for understanding high-temperature superconductors. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-disorder-key-tuning-high-temperature.html Superconductivity Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:40:01 EDT news708865861 Superconductors are materials that carry electricity with zero resistance below specific temperatures. Many of these materials become superconducting at very low temperatures, yet some enter superconducting phases at higher temperatures. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-spinons-electrons-pair-stripes-superconductors.html Superconductivity Thu, 10 Sep 2026 10:00:11 EDT news708080486 Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity without electrical resistance when cooled below a specific critical temperature. These materials have proved promising for the development of various technologies, including medical imaging instruments, particle accelerators, ultrasensitive detectors and quantum processors. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-phases-chromium-based-material.html Superconductivity Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:00:01 EDT news707734660 Researchers have completely suppressed superconductivity in magic-angle graphene by screening interactions between electrons, helping resolve a long-running debate about the origin of the phenomenon. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-magic-angle-graphene-evidence-unconventional.html Superconductivity Fri, 04 Sep 2026 17:20:03 EDT news707746981 What happens when a superconductor becomes so thin that electrons can no longer behave as if they were moving through an ordinary three-dimensional piece of metal? This question has been at the center of my recent work on quantum confinement in metallic films. Over the past few years, I have been developing this line of theory with my colleague Giovanni Ummarino at Politecnico di Torino. Our initial goal was to understand something rather concrete: Why does shrinking the thickness of a superconducting film change the temperature at which superconductivity appears? https://phys.org/news/2026-08-superconductors-thinner-accommodate-magnetic-fields.html Superconductivity Wed, 02 Sep 2026 17:40:01 EDT news707392815 One of the central ideas in modern physics is the phase transition—a sudden transformation of the state of a material. We encounter phase transitions throughout everyday life: water freezes into ice, wax melts in the warmth of a flame, and water vapor condenses into droplets on a cold window. In these familiar examples, the atoms themselves rearrange into a new structure, giving the material entirely different properties. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-faint-infrared-insulator-metal-transition.html Condensed Matter Mon, 31 Aug 2026 18:20:03 EDT news707384285 Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS), in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States, have uncovered that a class of nickel-based materials known as samarium (Sm)-based infinite-layer nickelates can regain their superconducting ability under strong magnetic fields. This behavior could open a promising pathway toward superconducting technologies that can operate under extreme magnetic conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-high-magnetic-fields-revive-superconductivity.html Condensed Matter Wed, 26 Aug 2026 10:40:04 EDT news706956602 Our everyday life is flooded with photons, the quantum building blocks of light. For cutting-edge technology, from quantum computing to deep-tissue imaging, detecting every single photon counts. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-supersized-quantum-sensors-faint-photons.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 24 Aug 2026 18:30:01 EDT news706809782 In a study published in Nature on Aug. 19, a research team has enhanced superconductivity through vacuum fluctuations for the first time. The achievement marks a significant advance in controlling quantum states of matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-vacuum-fluctuation-superconductivity.html Superconductivity Mon, 24 Aug 2026 16:50:01 EDT news706806661 Superconductors are materials that carry electrical current with zero resistance below a specific critical temperature. In conventional superconductors, the transition to superconductivity generally occurs at very low temperatures. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-superconducting-gap-ultrathin-nickelate-defies.html Condensed Matter Sun, 23 Aug 2026 10:10:01 EDT news706441308 To commercialize quantum computing, manufacturers need high-quality superconducting materials for microchips, but they also require a reliable, sustainable nanofabrication process. Tantalum is a corrosion-resistant metal that meets the first criterion but not the second. That's because it has to be deposited on a substrate at temperatures that typically exceed 400°C (752°F)—too hot for many semiconductor foundries' current tools. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-krypton-gas-emerges-ingredient-quantum.html Superconductivity Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:40:06 EDT news706277341 Superconductors are materials in which electrical current flows with a resistance of zero, typically below specific temperatures. In conventional superconductors, this state of matter emerges when two electrons bind together at low temperatures, forming so-called Cooper pairs. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-unusual-superconductivity-emerge-valley-imbalanced.html Condensed Matter Tue, 18 Aug 2026 09:40:03 EDT news706179882 Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with zero electrical resistance below specific temperatures. Most of these materials become superconducting at very low temperatures, but some also exhibit superconductivity at higher temperatures. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-sought-zhang-rice-singlet-visualized.html Superconductivity Wed, 12 Aug 2026 08:00:01 EDT news705663782 Scientists in China predict that stacking two microscopic layers of boron could set a new record for superconductivity. Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with zero resistance. Traditional types need temperatures close to absolute zero to work, requiring complex and expensive cooling equipment. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-boron-layers-superconductivity-theoretical.html Condensed Matter Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:20:01 EDT news705241771 Super-thin superconducting materials, which are only one or a few atoms thick, have unique properties scientists can leverage to produce more compact, scalable, and efficient quantum devices. But these fragile materials degrade so rapidly in air that they are difficult to study or manufacture. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-air-stable-ultrathin-superconductors-scalable.html Superconductivity Wed, 05 Aug 2026 19:00:01 EDT news705161101 Quantum computers process information in a fundamentally different way from conventional computers, using quantum bits, or qubits, that can exist in multiple states at once. This could allow them to tackle problems beyond the reach of today's machines, from simulating new materials to optimizing complex systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-bits-faster-hardware.html Superconductivity Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:20:02 EDT news704450101