Advance hastens practicality of superconductivity

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WUSTL Physicist James Schilling points out a tiny ceramic ring about the size of a small washer key to a technique developed along with researchers at Argonne (Ill.) National Laboratory that could make superconductivity more practical.
WUSTL Physicist James Schilling points out a tiny ceramic ring about the size of a small washer, key to a technique developed along with researchers at Argonne (Ill.) National Laboratory that could make superconductivity more practical.

Nobody completely understands superconductors. So fathom how James S. Schilling, Ph.D., led a team that makes the phenomenon work better. Schilling, a professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, collaborated with recent doctoral graduate Takahiro Tomita and scientists at Argonne (Ill.) National Laboratory to determine whether one region in superconductors, called grain boundaries (GB), are oxygen deficient. Such oxygen deficiency impairs superconductor performance.


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