A group of U.S. and Chinese scientists have made a new discovery on iron-based compounds, which may help find new superconductors that can be used in power generation, transportation and other fields, Rice University said Monday.
The university, based in Houston, the U.S. state of Texas, made the announcement in a published statement Monday, saying that the effort to create practical superconductors has moved a step forward with the finding, which appeared online in a new Nature Communications paper.
A team led by Rice physicist Qimiao Si found two distinctly different iron-based compounds share common mechanisms for moving electrons. Understanding that mechanism may help researchers find even better superconductors, Si said.
The work by Si and his team showed how the interactions between electron spins in the iron-based compounds drive superconductivity. This interaction is the strongest when the electronic system is close to the Mott transition, which Si described as the point where electrons teeter on the edge of free movement or being stuck in place.
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