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Posted on 07/23/2009 4:28:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Hideo Hosono's research group at the Tokyo Institute of Technology was not looking for a superconductor in 2006. Rather the team was trying to create new kinds of transparent semiconductors for flat-panel displays. But when the researchers characterized the electronic properties of their new substance -- a combination of lanthanum, oxygen, iron and phosphorus -- they found that below four kelvins, or -269 degrees Celsius, it lost all resistance to carrying an electric current; that is, it superconducted.
Although 4 K is far below the current laboratory record of 138 K (let alone the holy grail of "room temperature," or about 300 K), experimentalists with a new superconductor are like yachtsmen with a new boat design. The sailors want to know how fast they can make it go; the physicists, how hot any variant of the material can superconduct. Superconductors' uses in industry are hobbled by the need for expensive, complicated, space-hogging cooling systems. Any increase in operating temperature could ease those drawbacks for existing devices and make completely fresh applications technically and economically viable. Engineers envisage, for instance, lossless power cables carrying huge currents and compact superstrong magnets -- for magnetic resonance imaging, levitated trains, particle accelerators and other wonders -- all without the exorbitant expense and trouble of the liquid-helium cooling systems required by the old, cold, conventional superconductors.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
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Hey, Hosono-san. Bummer of an acronym you guys got, there.
Don't know what you're boobin' about...
Not sure 4 degrees Kelvin qualifies for high temperature super-conductivity...
This is an exciting discovery that i had not read about yet. Thanks for posting it. I will be wading through this article in time, and looking for more info. It is an exciting discovery! Thanks for the ping. It will be interesting to hear if that other “string theory applied to superconductors” thread gets applied to this conductor as well!
You’re right there, but the higher temps are mentioned later in the article.
My pleasure.
Great article! Many Thanks!
My pleasure. :’)
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