A superconductor that works at room temperature was long thought impossible, but scientists at USC may have discovered a family of materials that could make it reality.
A team led by Vitaly Kresin, professor of physics at USC, found that aluminum "superatoms"—homogenous clusters of atoms—appear to form Cooper pairs of electrons (one of the key elements of superconductivity) at temperatures around 100 Kelvin.
Though 100 Kelvin is still pretty chilly—that's about -280 degrees Fahrenheit—this is an enormous increase compared to bulk aluminum metal, which turns superconductive only near 1 Kelvin (-457 degrees Fahrenheit).
"This may be the discovery of a new family of superconductors, and raises the possibility that other types of superatoms will be capable of superconductivity at even warmer temperatures," said Kresin, corresponding author of a paper on the finding that was published by Nano Letters on Jan. 28. USC graduate student Avik Halder and former USC postdoctoral researcher Anthony Liang are co-authors.
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