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Physicists May Be One Step Closer To Explaining High-Temp Superconductivity

Posted by samzenpus on from the it's-getting-hot-in-here dept.

sciencehabit writes For years some physicists have been hoping to crack the mystery of high-temperature superconductivity—the ability of some complex materials to carry electricity without resistance at temperatures high above absolute zero—by simulating crystals with patterns of laser light and individual atoms. Now, a team has taken—almost—the next-to-last step in such 'optical lattice' simulation by reproducing the pattern of magnetism seen in high-temperature superconductors from which the resistance-free flow of electricity emerges.

2 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Relatively high temp... by itzly · · Score: 4, Interesting

    perhaps engineer some meta-materials that hold such properties at room temperature.

    Doesn't even have to be room temperature. Being able to make a MRI machine using liquid nitrogen instead of helium would be a huge win.

  2. Re:Relatively high temp... by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So when they talk about high temp semiconductors, it is still around -211F

    What does this mean in practical terms?
    Is this an easy temperature to maintain?
    What techniques or materials could we use to keep that temp?
    How does power generation and pulling off waste heat factor into it?

    A "low temp" superconductor relies on liquid helium to keep it cool (approx 4K). A 'high temp" superconductor relies on liquid nitrogen to keep it cool (77K).

    Liquid nitrogen is stupidly cheap - tons of places use liquid nitrogen for a lot of non-superconducting purposes including packaged food preparation, cooling, experimentation (a lot of "cryo" experiments use liquid nitrogen, including the ever popular frozen rose, frozen banana and other science demonstrations).

    In fact, to get rid of a small dewar of liquid nitrogen, it's usually just dumped on the table after the demo is done creating a nice effect. A more controlled evaporation is simply leaving the lid off and letting it boil off naturally.

    No one keeps stuff cool by liquifying nitrogen onsite. Instead, they just have Air Liquide and similar companies come by every week or so and top off the cryo tank. The cryo tank provides the supply of liquid nitrogen that's needed for the equipment (MRI machines use it in superconducting magnets). Most labs have it available freely as well.

    Liquid helium is much more expensive. Liquid nitrogen is so cheap that having it transported and even any wastage is considered "meh". Hell, schools probably buy way more than they need simply because to make it worthwhile you end up with a huge dewar of it.