Superconductors allow electric current to pass without resistance or loss of energy and have applications in levitation and particle accelerators.
A team of researchers from Emory University and Stanford University in the United States identified a mechanism for the formation of oscillating superconductivity known as pair density waves in which the vibrations of pairs of electrons change amplitude.
The discovery of this “exotic” phenomenon, as experts have called it, provides new insights into an unconventional superconducting state, the same ones that could help overcome the obstacles to the development of superconductivity at ambient temperatures and pressures, so difficult to find. achieve.
“We discovered that structures known as Van Hove singularities can produce modulating and oscillating states of superconductivity,” says physicist Luiz Santos of Emory University. “Our work provides a new theoretical framework for understanding the emergence of this behavior, a phenomenon that is not well understood.”
Superconductivity at room temperature, the ‘holy grail’ of physicists
Superconductivity promises to transform everything from power grids to personal electronics. The phenomenon of superconductivity was discovered in 1911 by the Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. Thanks to this capacity, some materials allow the passage of electric current without resistance or loss of energy.
However, such substances often have to be cooled to very low temperatures or subjected to intense pressures, which significantly limits their practical use. Therefore, the search for a superconductor that works at ambient temperature and pressure has been the ‘holy grail’ among physicists.
As “soldiers in an army“
It took scientists until 1957 to find an explanation for how and why superconductivity occurs. At normal temperatures, the electrons travel more or less independently. They collide with other particles, causing them to change speed and direction and dissipate energy. However, at low temperatures, electrons can organize to form pairs that are bound together in a collective state that behaves as a single entity.
“You can think of them as soldiers in an army. If they move in isolation, it’s easier to deflect them. But when they march together in unison it is much more difficult to destabilize them. This collective state carries the current in a solid way,” explains Santos.
“I doubt that Kamerlingh Onnes was thinking of levitation or particle accelerators when he discovered superconductivity,” says the scientist. “But everything we learn about the world has potential applications.he added. The results of this study were recently published in Physical Review Letters.
Source: RT
