Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Silicon Superconductors

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the old-dog-new-tricks dept.

Diana writes "Physicists at CNRS have demonstrated superconductivity in silicon, the element long known for its semiconducting properties. High doping is the key — by substituting 9% of the silicon atoms with boron atoms, it was found that the resistance of the material drops sharply when cooled below 0.35 K. A small increase in the transition temperature is likely with further work."

4 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. How useful is this? by TubeSteak · · Score: 2, Interesting
    0.35 K? as in... barely above absolute zero?

    Etienne says that they will probably be able to increase the transition temperature a bit further, although the material will be unlikely to have any applications in consumer devices.
    What non-consumer applications will it have? Getting something down to .35K isn't exactly trivial...

    IIRC, anything that doesn't superconduct at the temp of liquid nitrogen is a pain in the ass to use.
    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  2. Re:So who the fuck cares by daniel_newton · · Score: 1, Interesting

    space is pretty cold, maybe they could use it up there?

  3. This will be useful in low temperature physics by ebers · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, 0.35 K is really cold. Refridgeration methods that reach this temperature cost ~ $100,000 and use the helium-3 isotope as the working fluid, which costs several hundred dollars per gaseous liter at STP. But this may still be useful because there is lots of established technology for making very small things out of silicon, and lots of fundemental physics that can only be done at very small length scales and in very cold environments.

  4. Superconducting Semiconductors by gantry · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Some years ago, evidence for superconductivity was found in a gallium arsenide epitaxial device. The work was duly published, and only some time later was it realised that the superconductivity was occurring in metallic indium on the back of the device - the indium had been used as a good thermal conductor for mounting the GaAs substrate in the epitaxial growth chamber, and had not been completely removed.

    If these guys have done their work carefully, they will have gone to great lengths to ensure that they really are measuring doped silicon, and not boron-rich precipitates, which might be formed at these very high boron doses.