| HOME >> BIOLOGY >> TECHNOLOGY |
UPTON, NY Identifying the mysterious mechanism underlying high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) remains one of the most important and tantalizing puzzles in physics. This remarkable phenomenon allows electric current to pass with perfect efficiency through materials chilled to subzero temperatures, and it may play an essential role in revolutionizing the entire electricity chain, from generation to transmission and grid-scale storage. Pinning down one of the possible explanations for HTSfleeting fluctuations called charge-density waves (CDWs)could help solve the mystery and pave the way for rapid technological advances.
Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have combined two state-of-the-art experimental techniques to study those electron waves with unprecedented precision in two-dimensional, custom-grown materials. The surprising results, published online February 24, 2013, in the journal Nature Materials, reveal that CDWs cannot be the root cause of the unparalleled power conveyance in HTS materials. In fact, CDW formation is an independent and likely competing instability.
"It has been difficult to determine whether or not dynamic or fluctuating CDWs even exist in HTS materials, much less identify their role," said Brookhaven Lab physicist and study coauthor Ivan Bozovic. "Do they compete with the HTS state, or are they perhaps the very essence of the phenomenon? That question has now been answered by targeted experimentation."
Custom-grown Superconductors
Electricity travels imperfectly through traditional metallic conductors, losing energy as heat due to a kind of atomic-scale friction. Impurities in these materials also cause electrons to scatter and stumble, but superconductors can overcome this hurdleassuming the synthesis process is precise.
For this experiment, Bozovic used a custom-built molecu
'/>"/>
| Contact: Justin Eure jeure@bnl.gov 631-344-2347 DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology technology :
1. X-ray laser sees photosynthesis in action
2. NTU research embraces laser and sparks cool affair
3. INRS develops a nanohybrid with remarkable properties using a new laser-plasma process
4. Recently FDA-Approved Full Neck Treatment for Sagging Skin Now Available at Maryland Laser Skin and Vein Institute
5. X-ray laser helps fight sleeping sickness
6. Researchers create laser the size of a virus particle
7. From lectures to explosives detection: Laser pointer identifies dangerous chemicals in real-time
8. Worlds smallest semiconductor laser created by University of Texas scientists
9. Calmar Laser Growth Reinforced by ISO 9001:2008 Certification
10. JPSA Introduces Picosecond Laser Micromachining System
11. CU-Boulder physicists use ultrafast lasers to create first tabletop X-ray device
 |
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |