Discovering new characteristics of superconductors can change the world

Superconductors will realize dreams like Tesla's 1,200km / h high speed train, or simply Lexus's hovering skis.

When talking about superconductors, scientists often refer to it as the material of the future , which creates a new revolution in industry and changes the world. This is only achieved when the superconducting state of matter exists at room temperature.

For decades scientists have been constantly thinking about this, however, the highest temperature they achieved was only -140 ^degrees C. Recently, a group of scientists at the University of Waterloo, Canada declared Their father found the key to the problem, helping us to quickly advance to superconductivity at room temperature.

An object suspended in the air, the symbol of superconducting material.

Why can superconductors create a new revolution? The reason comes from its wonderful properties. Superconducting reduces the material's resistance to zero. That means that the power transmission system and all the machines can be extremely efficient with significant energy losses.

Although superconductors have been created and applied to life for more than a century, the economics of superconductors are very limited. That comes from the superconducting state of matter normally only achieved when it lowers its temperature to 0K, equivalent to -273 ^o C.

This process even consumes a lot more energy than we save when using superconductors. It uses nitrogen or liquid helium for cooling. This sets the price of all devices and operations using superconductors today, from everyday medical machines to giant particle accelerators and to physical experiments of CERN.

A ship can hover both above and below the track thanks to superconductivity.

For decades, the temperature of the superconducting state of matter has been increasing. In 2014, for the first time, superconductivity could be achieved at record high temperatures: -140 ^° C with atmospheric pressure. They can even make a substance become superconducting at room temperature for several billionths of a second.

However, it is the scientists in the research team who do this that do not understand why it happened so it cannot be predicted. The superconductivity at room temperature in 2014 is counted as unreliable.

Therefore, a group of physicists at the University of Waterloo, Canada, led by Dr. David Hawthorn, decided to continue studying this issue. They want to find out exactly what happens when a substance reaches superconducting state at high temperatures. At that time, we can refine the process to make this happen at the highest possible temperature.

Lexus skis still needs cooling with liquid nitrogen.

Hawthorn and his team used scattered X-rays to look deeply into what happens inside copper oxide ceramic materials. This is the best material we can create to achieve superconductivity at high temperatures.

When looking deep into the atomic layers, the team discovered a special structure. They believe that this is a switch to "turn off" the superconducting state of matter at high temperatures, explaining why sometimes the previous team achieved superconductivity and sometimes not.

"In this study, we have identified some unexpected links of electrons. It is likely to appear in all superconducting states of matter at high temperatures , " Hawthorn said.

Specifically, this is the phenomenon that electronic clouds are about to turn into very orderly and oriented rows . It is like forming caro-shaped plots in high-temperature superconductors. The team called it "electronic nematicity".

"Alignment models and symmetries have an important effect on superconductivity. It can destroy, coexist or enhance superconductivity , " Hawthorn said. The team also found that the "electronic nematicity" phenomenon occurs in copper oxide ceramics when temperatures drop to a certain point. The study was published in the journal Science.

Structure of copper oxide ceramic materials in the study.

The biggest challenge for the current team is how "electronic nematicity" will relate to the process of fluctuating charge density . This is extremely complex but very important.

"Normally, electrons distribute very uniformly. However, when the charges are arranged in an order they form electronic bundles, like ripples on the surface of the lake," explained the representative of the University of Waterloo. . "This sets up a competition. The material will oscillate between superconducting and superconducting states. Until the temperature drops low enough for the superconducting state to win."

The team will solve this problem in the next work. They then turned the "electronic nematicity" into an adjustable "screw switch" . The ultimate goal is to control the superconducting state of matter at room temperature reliably.

It can be seen that the work of scientists only reaches one-third of the distance. But anyway it is a more important step to achieve the dream of high-temperature superconducting materials. One thing to recall is that superconducting materials at high temperatures are what can create a new revolution in industry and change the world.