Boffs make superconductor breakthrough

The boffins - from the University of British Columbia and the University of Sherbrooke - detected an elusive signature of electrons within a high-temperature superconductor.

According to the popular science mag Nature, this solves a decades-old mystery surrounding metals that carry electricity without resistance.

It will open the door for everyday trains that levitate on magnetic fields, ultrapowerful quantum computers and big savings for utilities.

Nature thinks that it will lead to the introduction of room temperature superconductors with 10 years and could be a revolution similar to the invention of the transistor.

The Canadian discovery is a quantum oscillation signature gives physicists the key to figuring out what causes electrons in some special metals to switch to superconducting behaviour.

Currently materials only become superconductors when they are ultra-cold, but the breakthrough means that the boffins can tweak the structure at the microscopic level to trigger superconducting behaviour at room temperatures.

More here. µ