In an innovative research, scientists have made a surprising discovery about the behavior of superconducting materials. The finding shows that a key process in superconducting materials can occur at much higher temperatures than expected. The achievement keeps hopes alive for achieving one of physics’ greatest goals, room-temperature superconductivity.
The cause of this phenomenon is still not fully understood, but scientists believe that with a deeper understanding of this mechanism, superconductors that work at room temperature can be achieved. The results of this research have been published in the prestigious journal Science. “Ki-Jun Shu”, one of the researchers of this project, says: “Electron pairs show us that there is a potential for superconductivity in them, but there is a factor preventing this potential from being realized. “By finding a way to coordinate these pairs, we can achieve superconductors with higher operating temperatures.”
Superconductivity is a phenomenon in which the electrical resistance of the material reaches zero. This phenomenon occurs at very low temperatures and due to the formation of Cooper pairs. Cooper pairs are electrons that connect and move in pairs due to interaction with the atomic lattice of matter. In recent years, scientists have sought to find materials that become superconducting at higher temperatures. However, progress in this field has come with many challenges. The new discovery has raised hopes for achieving this goal.
In this research, researchers studied a special type of superconducting material called cuprate. By shining ultraviolet light on the surface of this material, they achieved interesting results. They observed that even at temperatures where the material loses its superconductivity, Cooper pairs still exist, and that these pairs are stronger in samples with higher electrical resistivity. These findings suggest that even in materials that do not appear to have room-temperature superconducting potential, there may be mechanisms that can be exploited to design new superconducting materials.
“Zhi-Zun Shen”, the supervisor of this research, believes that this discovery opens a new path for research in the field of superconductivity. He says: “We intend to achieve a deeper understanding of this phenomenon by conducting more studies and ultimately help to build superconductors with wide applications in various industries.
RCO NEWS