The latest breakthrough in superconductors, which will be published March 20 in Science, answers a key question on the microscopic electronic structure
of cuprate superconductors, the most celebrated material family in our quest for true room - temperature superconductivity.
In this research, Lawler and his colleagues focused on a member
of the cuprate class of superconductors called bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide (BSCCO).
The research team verified that the electronic structure of the nickelate resembles
that of cuprate materials by taking X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements at the Advanced Photon Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility, and by performing density functional theory calculations.
Due to the complexity
of cuprates, it is difficult for researchers to study them directly to find out what properties lead to the ability to conduct current without resistance.
Not exact matches
We have directly determined the structural dynamics
of such a nonequilibrium phase transition in a
cuprate superconductor.
More than a decade after the discovery
of high - transition temperature superconductivity in
cuprate materials, its mechanism is still a matter
of contentious debate.
In the late 90's, Prof. Leggett
of the University
of Illinois presented a scenario for high Tc superconductivity in the
cuprates, materials consisting primarily
of copper and oxygen.
«It's possible that these materials will provide a cleaner system to work with, and suddenly [the physics
of] the
cuprates will become clearer,» says Hai - Hu Wen, a physicist at the Institute
of Physics (IoP) at the Chinese Academy
of Sciences in Beijing.
Physicists around the world are hailing the discovery
of the new iron - and - arsenic compounds as a major advance, as the only other high - temperature superconductors are the copper - and - oxygen compounds, or
cuprates, that were discovered in 1986.
The material is a member
of a family
of copper - oxygen - based superconducting compounds - the
cuprates - that are prime candidates for numerous potential high - impact applications, including extremely efficient electricity generation, storage, and transmission across the nation's power grid.
They proposed a new way to study a
cuprate, one that no other group had tried: a powerful imaging technique developed by Davis, called sublattice imaging - which is performed using a specialized scanning tunneling microscope (STM) capable
of determining the electronic structure in different subsets
of the atoms in the crystal, the so - called sublattices.
But after three decades
of ensuing research, exactly how
cuprate superconductivity works remains a defining problem in the field.
In 1986, however, discovery
of high - temperature superconductivity in copper oxide compounds called
cuprates engendered new technological potential for the phenomenon.
Having observed this unexpected state in the
cuprates and iron - pnictides, scientists were eager to see whether this unusual electronic order would also be observed in a new class
of titanium - oxypnictide high - temperature superconductors discovered in 2013.
While the basis
of conventional superconductivity is understood, researchers are still exploring the theory
of high - temperature superconductivity in copper - based materials called
cuprates.
«This is the first demonstration
of quasiparticle imaging and tunneling spectroscopy at individual impurity atoms in complex materials like the
cuprate - oxides,» Davis adds.
«We now believe these density waves exist in all
cuprates,» says Lawler, a theorist whose contribution to the research involved subtle uses
of the Fourier transform, a mathematical analysis that's useful when examining amplitude patterns in waves.
We have used QMC to study magnetic properties
of Ca2CuO3, an effectively one - dimensional counterpart
of the famous superconducting
cuprates.
Michael Lawler, assistant professor
of physics at Binghamton, is part
of an international team
of physicists with an ongoing interest in the mysterious pseudogap phase, the phase situated between insulating and superconducting phases in the
cuprate phase diagram.
K. Foyevtsova, J. T. Krogel, J. Kim, P. R. C. Kent, E. Dagotto, and F. A. Reboredo, «Ab initio quantum Monte Carlo calculations
of spin superexchange in
cuprates: the benchmarking case
of Ca2CuO3,» Physical Review X 4 031003...
Scientists at the Department
of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have shown that copper - based superconductors, or
cuprates — the first class
of materials found to carry electricity with...
HTSC
cuprates: The controlled epitaxial growth
of various
cuprates, mainly YBCO, was studied on a variety
of substrates and orientations.