Man-Made Material Pushes the Bounds of Superconductivity 133
An anonymous reader writes "A multi-university team of researchers has artificially engineered a unique multilayer material that could lead to breakthroughs in both superconductivity research and in real-world applications. The researchers can tailor the material, which seamlessly alternates between metal and oxide layers, to achieve extraordinary superconducting properties — in particular, the ability to transport much more electrical current than non-engineered materials."
Re:Resistance and temperature (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Resistance and temperature (Score:5, Informative)
The question -- as it always is -- is: What is the operating temperature range for this material? Because if it's still "refrigerate or die", applications will not expand much beyond where they are today.
I don't have a subscription to Nature Materials, but squinting at the thumbnail graphs available for free, looks like the transition temperature is somewhere around 17-24 Kelvin. As far as I can tell, main advance here is in improving Critical Current Density and Irreversibility Field limits.
Also, tag for story summary: whereisthefuckingpaper [nature.com]
Re:Resistance and temperature (Score:5, Informative)
From the Supplementary Materials [nature.com] PDF:
Tc,p = 0 Values
(STO 1.2nm / Co-doped Ba-122 13nm) x24 . . .= 17.0K .= 20.5K
(O-Ba-122 3nm / Co-doped Ba-122 20nm) x24 . = 22.3K
(O-Ba-122 3nm / Co-doped Ba-122 20nm) x16 . = 22.9K
(O-Ba-122 3nm / Co-doped Ba-122 13nm) x24 . = 22.4K
(O-Ba-122 3nm / Co-doped Ba-122 13nm) x16 . = 22.5K
Single layer Co-doped Ba-122 . . . . . . .
Re:My vaporware sense is tingling... (Score:0, Informative)
OK, you really didn't read the paper. I don't think you even read the ABSTRACT. The FIRST sentence of the methods sections is.
(1.2nm STO or 3nm O–Ba-122/13nm and 20nm Co-doped Ba-122) × n superlattice thin films were grown in situ on STO-templated (001)-oriented LSAT single-crystal substrates using pulsed laser deposition with a KrF (248nm) ultraviolet excimer laser in a vacuum of 3 × 104Pa at 730–750C.
Which part of that screams theoretical to you? All those details you want are in the Nature paper. If you were anyone important, you would have access to a library with a subscription.
Never judge a scientific paper based on its press release.
Re:My vaporware sense is tingling... (Score:2, Informative)
I wanted two things.
One, I just wanted to know whether or not the new material was even superconductive at appreciable temperatures.
Two, I wanted to know the highest temperature it was superconductive up to.
That's not that much information to ask for. Someone else here pointed out that one of the small pictures below the original article abstract contained a graph showing conductivity vs temperature, and magnifying it answered both questions.
Turns out that my intuition about the viability of this as any sort of promising breakthrough was right (although I admit being wrong about it being just theoretically designed). This isn't really exciting news at all. It's only operational as a superconductor at up to not even 25K.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Resistance and temperature (Score:3, Informative)
Not to mention, the "high temperature" superconductors we have now can't be easily made into wire for winding into magnets.
High temperature is relative here, they mean liquid nitrogen temperatures.
Re:Resistance and temperature (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Resistance and temperature (Score:2, Informative)
Check this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rM04U5BO3Ug