An international team that includes Rutgers University-New Brunswick scientists has developed a new method to make and manipulate a widely studied class of high-temperature superconductors.
This technique should pave the way for the creation of unusual forms of superconductivity in previously unattainable materials.
When cooled to a critical temperature, superconductors can conduct electricity without resistance or energy loss. These materials have intrigued physicists for decades because they can achieve a state of perfect conductivity allowing an electric current to flow indefinitely. But most superconductors only exhibit this peculiarity at temperatures so low -- a few degrees above absolute zero -- which renders them impractical.
The new work, published in Science, describes experiments that grew out of theoretical calculations that included those by a Rutgers team led by Jedediah Pixley, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences.\
To read more, click here.