Electron pairs in superconducting rings.When a material becomes a superconductor, current-carrying electrons behave as if they were paired, even though electrons at close quarters repel each other. In conventional superconductors, this pairing results from the coordinated interaction between electrons and vibrations of the crystal lattice through which the electrons move. However, such interactions are too weak to account for superconductivity in high-temperature copper-oxide superconductors. Although theorists are certain that pairing occurs, they have so far been unable to agree on what mechanism leads to the formation of electron pairs in these materials. Now, researchers have obtained new experimental evidence that may help establish how high-temperature superconductivity works. John R. Kirtley John R. Kirtley (1949- ) is a research physicist. He received his BA in Physics from UCSB in 1971 and his PhD in Physics from the same school in 1976. His PdD topic was inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy, with Paul Hansma as his thesis advisor. , Chang C. Tsuei, and their coworkers at the IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) Thomas J. Watson Research Center The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for the IBM Research Division. The center is on three sites, with the main laboratory in Yorktown Heights, New York, 45 miles north of New York City, a building in Hawthorne, New York, and offices in Cambridge, in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., have found that a superconducting ring can exhibit magnetization half the size of the magnetic flux quantum The magnetic flux quantum Φ0 is the quantum of magnetic flux passing through a superconductor. The inverse of the flux quantum, 1/Φ0, is called the Josephson constant, and is denoted KJ. . Kirtley described the findings at an American Physical Society The American Physical Society was founded in 1899 and is the world's second largest organization of physicists. The Society publishes more than a dozen science journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than twenty science meeting held last week in Pittsburgh. Kirtley and his colleagues worked with a set of four microscopic rings made from thin films of the high-temperature superconductor yttrium barium copper oxide Yttrium barium copper oxide, often abbreviated YBCO, is a chemical compound with the formula YBa2Cu3O7. This material, a famous "high-temperature superconductor", achieved prominence because it was the first material to achieve superconductivity (see image). Each ring contained a different number of grain boundaries, where superconducting films with different lattice orientations meet to create junctions. When the rings are chilled to 4.2 kelvins, a tiny electrical current begins to circulate spontaneously within each one. This supercurrent su·per·cur·rent n. An electrical current flowing through a superconductor. generates a magnetic field. Using a scanning SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) microscope, the researchers can detect and measure the resulting magnetization at each ring. Kirtley and his team discovered that a three-junction ring- unlike those having no junction or two junctions - reveals magnetization in "packages" half the size of the magnetic flux quantum. "If [yttrium barium copper oxide] were an ordinary superconductor, you would never see the effect they claim to see," says Frederick C. Wellstood of the University of Maryland University of Maryland can refer to:
The IBM results may shed light on the particular type of pairing that occurs between two electrons in a high-temperature superconductor. Theorists have debated heatedly whether electron pairing is characterized by socalled s-wave or d-wave symmetry, The new findings - if they hold up - suggest the existence of d-wave pairing. Such evidence doesn't settle the argument concerning the mechanism by which pairing occurs in high-temperature superconductors, but it may rule out certain possibilities. At the same time, the experimental results need to be checked. For example, magnetic impurities at the junctions may have affected the measurements. |
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