Metamaterial Superconductor Hints At New Era of High Temperature Superconductors

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.

Comments

0.15 degree from a 3.7 kelvin... that's "cool"

[JcMorin]

I feel it's soo far away to be somehow useful I'm not that excited.

Re:0.15 degree from a 3.7 kelvin... that's "cool"

[Shortguy881]

Think of the flying cars!

Re:0.15 degree from a 3.7 kelvin... that's "cool"

[JoshuaZ]

This is extremely preliminary. It is likely that later work will be able to increase it further. And even an increase in a few degrees centigrade would have practical impacts. Moreover, the ability to make metamaterials of this sort may lead to superconductors with different ranges wherein they engage in magnetic quenching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnet#Magnet_quench which is important for safe and practical use of superconductors even today. It isn't uncommon for a bad quenching event to damage a particle accelerator. A particular bad example happened to the LHC back in 2008 dealing serious damage to the accelerator http://astroengine.com/2008/10/18/lhc-quench-ripped-magnets-from-concrete-floor/. Yes, this isn't immediately practical but it looks like there's a lot of potential.

150 kelvin = -189.67 F

[Flavianoep]

You're welcome.

Re:150 kelvin = -189.67 F

[GNious]

C'mon, it is the year 2014 already - no-one uses Fahrenheit any longer.

Re:150 kelvin = -189.67 F

[mark-t]

It's especially ironic because in Britain, they actually use the metric system.

Re:150 kelvin = -189.67 F

[WindBourne]

Actually, Britain uses a mix of metric and imperial. They still refer to their weight in stones, amongst others.

I'm not terribly impressed.

[mark-t]

So they raised the critical temperature of a substance 3/20ths of a degree K above what it is otherwise, and the substance wasn't even among the category of what are considered high temperature supercondutors currently. Color me incredibly excited about this when they can raise the critical temperature of a superconductor to something like the freezing point of water... or even dry ice for that matter.

Re:I'm not terribly impressed.

[mark-t]

I mentioned dry ice as an example not because you'd use dry ice to cool a superconductor directly, but because the temperatures necessary to make dry ice can be very easily achieved with inexpensive refrigeration techniques.

I never ...

[CaptainDork]

... metamaterial I didn't like and stuff.