http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Using precision techniques for making superconducting thin films layer-by-layer, physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a single layer responsible for one such material's ability to become superconducting, i.e., carry electrical current with no energy loss. The technique, described in the October 30, 2009, issue of Science, could be used to engineer ultrathin films with "tunable" superconductivity for higher-efficiency electronic devices. http://www.physorg.com/news176045082.html Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:25:20 EST news176045082 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Applied Superconductivity Center at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has received $1.2 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to understand and enhance a new form of superconducting material that could be used to build more-powerful magnets used in a wide range of scientific research. http://www.physorg.com/news174676669.html Physics Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:20:01 EST news174676669 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of U.S. and Japanese scientists has shown for the first time that the spectroscopic "fingerprint" of high-temperature superconductivity remains intact well above the super chilly temperatures at which these materials carry current with no resistance. This confirms that certain conditions necessary for superconductivity exist at the warmer temperatures that would make these materials practical for energy-saving applications - if scientists can figure out how to get the current flowing. http://www.physorg.com/news170602115.html Physics Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:29:39 EST news170602115 New UBC research has literally and figuratively poked holes in single-band Hubbard physics--a model that has been used to predict and calculate the behavior of high-temperature superconductors for 20 years. http://www.physorg.com/news169919945.html Physics Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:00:01 EST news169919945 Superconductivity appears to rely on very different mechanisms in two varieties of iron-based superconductors. The insight comes from research groups that are making bold statements about the correct description of superconductivity in iron-based compounds in two papers about to be published in journals of the American Physical Society. http://www.physorg.com/news166680373.html Physics Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:06:49 EST news166680373 String theory has come under fire in recent years. Promises have been made that have not been lived up to. Leiden (The Netherlands) theoretical physicists have now for the first time used string theory to describe a physical phenomenon. Their discovery has been reported in Science Express. http://www.physorg.com/news166097923.html Physics Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:19:17 EST news166097923 Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered that a reduction in mechanical strain at the boundaries of crystal grains can significantly improve the performance of high-temperature superconductors (HTS). Their results* could lead to lower cost and significantly improved performance of superconductors in a wide variety of applications, such as power transmission, power grid reliability and advanced physics research. http://www.physorg.com/news164457791.html Physics Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:10:02 EST news164457791 A team of researchers at the University of Illinois has demonstrated that, counter to classical Newtonian mechanics, an entire collection of superconducting electrons in an ultrathin superconducting wire is able to "tunnel" as a pack from a state with a higher electrical current to one with a notably lower current, providing more evidence of the phenomenon of macroscopic quantum tunneling. http://www.physorg.com/news162650639.html Nanotechnology Wed, 27 May 2009 13:48:12 EST news162650639 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory have proposed theoretical models to explain the normal magnetic properties in iron-based superconductors. This research was published in the December 21, 2008 issue of Nature Physics. Their research builds on earlier research they conducted proposing a theoretical model for superconductivity in newly discovered iron-based superconductors. That earlier research was published in Physical Review Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news158859865.html Physics Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:44:44 EST news158859865 (PhysOrg.com) -- Recently, an international group of researchers discovered that the underlying mechanism producing high-temperature superconductivity in a widely studied class of copper-oxygen-based superconductors may be different than scientists have long been assuming. http://www.physorg.com/news156523499.html Physics Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:45:29 EST news156523499 Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have proposed theoretical models to explain the normal magnetic properties in iron-based superconductors. This research was published in the December 21, 2008 issue of Nature Physics. Their research builds on earlier research they conducted proposing a theoretical model for superconductivity in newly discovered iron-based superconductors. That earlier research was published in Physical Review Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news156435623.html Physics Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:20:49 EST news156435623 An international team of physicists from the United States and China this week offered a new theory to both explain and predict the complex quantum behavior of a new class of high-temperature superconductors. http://www.physorg.com/news156094850.html Physics Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:41:34 EST news156094850 (PhysOrg.com) -- Traditionally, magnetism and superconductivity don't mix. For more than 20 years, the only known superconductors that worked at so-called "high" temperatures (above 30 K, or about -406 degrees Fahrenheit) were almost all based on copper. Materials with strong magnetism, scientists thought, would disrupt the pairing of electrons that is key to achieving the frictionless flow of superconductivity. So when a group of researchers recently found high-temperature superconductivity present in a class of iron-based materials, their discovery shocked and excited the scientific community. http://www.physorg.com/news155494328.html Physics Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:52:46 EST news155494328 (PhysOrg.com) -- The paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) by a team led by professor Francesc Illas of the University of Barcelona's Department of Physical Chemistry and director of the Laboratory of Computational Materials Science (CMSL) will help to broaden our understanding of the nature of superconducting materials and of the origin of the superconductivity phenomenon in high critical temperature materials. http://www.physorg.com/news154681879.html Physics Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:12:11 EST news154681879 (PhysOrg.com) -- Los Alamos researchers in collaboration with colleagues in US and Europe report on the observation of a kink in the dispersion of f-electrons in USb2. http://www.physorg.com/news152816552.html Physics Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:03:08 EST news152816552 (PhysOrg.com) -- MIT physicists have discovered that several high-temperature superconductors display patchwork quilt-like variations at the atomic scale, a surprising finding that could help scientists understand a new class of unconventional materials. http://www.physorg.com/news152379510.html Physics Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:39:03 EST news152379510 For nearly a century, scientists have been trying to unravel the many mysteries of superconductivity, where materials conduct electricity with zero resistance. http://www.physorg.com/news152263441.html Physics Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:24:31 EST news152263441 (PhysOrg.com) -- Squeeze it hard enough and hydrogen, the most abundant and lightest element in our Universe, strangely takes on a metallic nature. During this state, as it loses hold of its electrons, hydrogen is believed to display unique characteristics including high-temperature superconductivity and properties that could be useful in developing new methods of energy production using nuclear fusion and alternative fuels. Creating this drastic phase change, however, is difficult, requiring extremely high temperatures and pressures. http://www.physorg.com/news150732210.html Physics Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:03:30 EST news150732210 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory used inelastic neutron scattering to show that superconductivity in a new family of iron arsenide superconductors cannot be explained by conventional theories. http://www.physorg.com/news150729937.html Physics Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:25:37 EST news150729937 (PhysOrg.com) -- New information about the metallic state from which high temperature superconductivity emerges, has been revealed in an innovative experiment performed at the University of Bristol. http://www.physorg.com/news148317352.html Physics Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:15:52 EST news148317352 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists studying a material that appeared to lose its ability to carry current with no resistance say new measurements reveal that the material is indeed a superconductor - but only in two dimensions. Equally surprising, this new form of 2-D superconductivity emerges at a higher temperature than ordinary 3-D superconductivity in other compositions of the same material. The research, conducted in part at the U.S. Department of Energy`s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, will appear in the November 2008 issue of Physical Review B. http://www.physorg.com/news147363593.html Physics Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:19:53 EST news147363593 (PhysOrg.com) -- Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have posited an explanation for superconductivity that may open the door to the discovery of new, unconventional forms of superconductivity. http://www.physorg.com/news146492527.html Physics Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:22:07 EST news146492527 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are decoding the mysterious mechanisms behind the high-temperature superconductors that industry hopes will find wide use in next-generation systems for storing, distributing and using electricity. In two new papers on a recently discovered class of high-temperature superconductors, they report that the already complicated relationship between magnetism and superconductivity may be more involved than previously thought, or that a whole new mechanism may drive some types of superconductors. http://www.physorg.com/news145800057.html Physics Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:00:57 EST news145800057 When an electrical current passes through a wire it emanates heat - a principle that's found in toasters and incandescent light bulbs. Some materials, at low temperatures, violate this law and carry current without any heat loss. But this seemingly trivial property, superconductivity, is now at the forefront of our understanding of physics. http://www.physorg.com/news140359809.html Physics Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:50:09 EST news140359809 (Physorg.com) -- Physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, along with colleagues at institutions in Switzerland and Canada, have observed, for the first time in a single exotic phase, a situation where magnetism and superconductivity are necessary for each other's existence. http://www.physorg.com/news139159195.html Physics Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:19:55 EST news139159195 (PhysOrg.com) -- MIT physicists believe they have identified a mysterious state of matter that has been linked to the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity. http://www.physorg.com/news135864149.html Physics Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:02:29 EST news135864149 Physicists at Rutgers and Columbia universities have gained new insight into the origins of superconductivity - a property of metals where electrical resistance vanishes - by studying exotic chemical compounds that contain neptunium and plutonium. http://www.physorg.com/news135862196.html Physics Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:29:56 EST news135862196 Scientists at the University of Cambridge have for the first time identified a key component to unravelling the mystery of room temperature superconductivity, according to a paper published in today's edition of the scientific journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news134828104.html Physics Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:15:04 EST news134828104