1 September 2013

A team of researchers at the Université de Sherbrooke have observed an unprecedented phenomenon in a superconductor: a material that transitions between two types of superconductivity.

As a matter of fact, there are two types of superconductivity, which we will call types A and B here. Until now, research has shown that materials adopt only one of these types.

The research project led by Professor Louis Taillefer and his team has uncovered the first exception: a material that transitions from type A to type B when placed under an enormous amount of pressure!

In fact, they observed that the critical temperature below which a metal conducts electricity perfectly without any resistance—otherwise known as superconductivity—suddenly began to rise above a certain amount of applied pressure on the particular material.

This is major step toward superconductors that work at room temperature. Currently, superconductivity occurs at temperatures in the neighbourhood of absolute zero (-273.15°C).

The results of the Sherbrooke team’s research were published in Nature Physics in June 2013.

» Go to the article in Nature Physics

Source: Université de Sherbrooke
Photo credit: Michel Caron