Classical and high-temperature superconductors differ hugely in the value of the critical temperatures at which they lose all electrical resistance. Scientists have now used powerful X-rays to establish another big difference: high-temperature superconductivity cannot be accounted for by the mechanism that leads to conventional superconductivity. As this mechanism called "electron-phonon coupling" contributes only marginally to the loss of electrical resistance, other scenarios must now be developed to explain high-temperature superconductivity. The results are published on 24 November 2013 in Nature Physics.
The team of scientists was led by Mathieu Le Tacon and Bernhard Keimer from the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart (Germany) and comprised scientists from Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the European Synchrotron (ESRF) in Grenoble, France.
To read more, click here