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World's Smallest Superconductor Discovered

Posted by samzenpus on from the none-more-small dept.

arcticstoat writes "One of the barriers to the development of nanoscale electronics has potentially been eliminated, as scientists have discovered the world's smallest superconductor. Made up of four pairs of molecules, and measuring just 0.87nm, the superconductor could potentially be used as a nanoscale interconnect in electronic devices, but without the heat and power dissipation problems associated with standard metal conductors."

4 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. What temperature does this work at though?! by An+Ominous+Cow+Erred · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This doesn't do us a lot of good in most applications if we have to cool our processors with liquid nitrogen.

    1. Re:What temperature does this work at though?! by corbettw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I chill my system using a picture of my ex-wife glaring into the camera. Nothing beats that.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  2. Critical temperature by Takionbrst · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Doing research in a solid state physics lab, I can tell you that this article is worth nothing without the inclusion of the critical temperature Tc at which the "superconductor" starts working. Given that its some sort of ceramic, its a class II superconductor which means that it could possibly be one of the "high Tc" superconductors, a misleading title because they do still need to be cooled with LN2 (just not liquid helium, a much more expensive/difficult prospect). If their "superconductor" only works at .7 kelvin, it's not very impressive--there are lots of materials that do that. To quote (more or less) one of my lab mates "if I dunked my cat in liquid helium, it would probably begin to superconduct." In summary, the devil is in the details.

  3. Psh. by naturaverl · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That's nothing. I've got an infinite number of superconductors right here that are exactly 0 nm in size. And they'll even work at room temperature!