Metamaterial Superconductor Hints At New Era of High Temperature Superconductors 39
KentuckyFC writes: Superconductors allow current to flow with zero resistance when cooled below some critical temperature. They are the crucial ingredients in everything from high-power magnets and MRI machines to highly sensitive magnetometers and magnetic levitation devices. But one big problem is that superconductors work only at very low temperatures — the highest is around 150 kelvin (-120 degrees centigrade). So scientists would dearly love to find ways of raising this critical temperature. Now a group of physicists say they've found a promising approach: to build metamaterial superconductors that steer electrons in the same way as other metamaterials steer light to create invisibility cloaks. The inspiration for the work comes from the observation that some high temperature superconductors consist of repeated layers of conducting and dielectric structures. So the team mixed tin — a superconductor at 3.7 kelvin — with the dielectric barium titanate and found that it raised the critical temperature by 0.15 kelvin. That's the first demonstration that superconductors can be thought of as metamaterials. With this proof of principle under their belts, the next step is to look for bigger gains at higher temperatures.
0.15 degree from a 3.7 kelvin... that's "cool" (Score:5, Insightful)
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... but we have flying cars. You can order one now.
You can buy a roadable aircraft [wikipedia.org] that can be driven to and from an airport. That is not the same as a real flying car that can takeoff and land on my driveway. It would also be cool if it could fold up into a briefcase, like it did on the Jetsons.
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Re:0.15 degree from a 3.7 kelvin... that's "cool" (Score:5, Informative)
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And it is the same thing that was said by others like you when America made the lithium Batteries.
Or when Goddard flew the first liquid rocket.
It is obvious that important issues escape you.
150 kelvin = -189.67 F (Score:2, Informative)
Re:150 kelvin = -189.67 F (Score:5, Insightful)
C'mon, it is the year 2014 already - no-one uses Fahrenheit any longer.
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Because they are pig headed. Kids are taught metric system in school, but encouraged to use British Imperial - which, coming from the US, is kind of ironic.
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if you are converting miles to 16ths of an inch you are doing something wrong.
really there isn't much need most of the time to convert between miles and inches or even feet and miles. the only real reason for that is to compress the number when you write it down. there is nothing stopping you from using deca-feet or kilo-feet.
typically when you are working in miles you aren't measuring down to the foot. so you would say something is 3.5 miles not 3 miles and 2640 feet or 3 miles and 880 yards.
the imperi
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Also, we haven't used the term centigrade in 50 years.
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No agrument that you should use metric units for technical work, but for day-to-day temperatures I still prefer Fahrenheit (which scales 0-100 to cover the temperature range normally experienced outdoors).
Knowing that today's high will be in the 50s/60s/70s/80s/90s/100s conveys info in a user-friendly way (to me at least).
I noticed that the thermostat in my last European hotel room allowed temperature adjustments in 0.1 increments, which suggests the Celsius scale is a bit too coarse for daily use.
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Fahrenheit is the only temperature system anyone should use! It's the temperature component of the One True System of measure: the Fortnight-Firkin-Furlong system.
Also known as -123.15 C (Score:2)
...
Read that as Metamucil Superconductor... (Score:1)
Miracles^2! (Score:2)
Good work!
I'm not terribly impressed. (Score:3, Insightful)
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High-temperature superconductors will become common when "ordinary" cooling is sufficient. Dry ice is impractical, that doesn't count. Can't pump it. In this case, we can make "ordinary cooling"concrete. Liquid nitrogen is too cold (77K); it causes condensation of nitrogen from the air. That's too bad because high-temperature superconductors still superconduct at the boling point of N2. But ethanol is a realistic coolant; it freezes below 159K. Propanol is even better at 147K.
Unfortunately we don't have any
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Frankly, I think we (meaning: those who design these sorts of things for a living) can deal with the issue of condensation out of the air.
The big problem today is that so-called "high temperature" superconductors all have less than desirable properties. Some are amazingly fragile; some superconduct but can't really be worked/machined in any meaningful way; some are so difficult to make (at least reproducibly) that they can't be used for anything more than research. It's great we've gotten this far.
As a prac
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Still, that represents a 4% increase in temperature, and also a completely new theory on why superconductors actually work.
I never ... (Score:4, Informative)
... metamaterial I didn't like and stuff.
Not impressed. (Score:1)
But when they raise the critical temperature by 0.20, THEN I'll be impresses.