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) -- 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 (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) -- Like astronomers tweaking images to gain a more detailed glimpse of distant stars, physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have found ways to sharpen images of the energy spectra in high-temperature superconductors - materials that carry electrical current effortlessly when cooled below a certain temperature. These new imaging methods confirm that the electron pairs needed to carry current emerge above the transition temperature, before superconductivity sets in, but only in a particular direction. http://www.physorg.com/news145110552.html Physics Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:29:12 EST news145110552 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, in collaboration with colleagues at Cornell University, Tokyo University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Colorado, have uncovered the first experimental evidence for why the transition temperature of high-temperature superconductors -- the temperature at which these materials carry electrical current with no resistance -- cannot simply be elevated by increasing the electrons' binding energy. The research -- to be published in the August 28, 2008, issue of Nature -- demonstrates how, as electron-pair binding energy increases, the electrons' tendency to get caught in a quantum mechanical "traffic jam" overwhelms the interactions needed for the material to act as a superconductor -- a freely flowing fluid of electron pairs. http://www.physorg.com/news139060424.html Physics Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:53:44 EST news139060424