New method of electron control in superconductors

[AK-047]

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UBC reveals superconductor breakthrough
Testing techniques may advance quantum computers, no-loss power lines
Catherine Rolfsen, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Scientists said it was impossible.

But a team of University of B.C. researchers proved them wrong by developing a way to control and study electrons on the surface of superconductors -- a technique that could have implications for the next generation of computing and electronics.

Superconductors -- materials that conduct electricity with no resistance -- are used in MRIs, levitating trains and power lines, and are thought to be key to developing quantum computing and power lines with no energy loss.

But they are difficult to study and understand, especially at their thin surface layers, which are the most useful for modern electronics.

To develop new testing techniques, the scientists used a "trick" developed during experiments conducted in Vancouver and California at the end of last year.

Details are being published this week in the scientific journal Nature Physics.

"It's a trick that nobody has ever used and nobody has ever come up with because the belief was this would never work," said Andrea Damascelli, the UBC physicist who led the experiments.

To conduct the experiments, Damascelli and his team needed unique samples of copper oxide, which are thought to be the purest sample of superconductor created to date and were specially "grown" by another team of Canadian researchers.

First, the copper oxide is put in a stainless-steel chamber kept in "outer space vacuum conditions" to avoid contaminating the sample, Damascelli explained. Atoms of potassium are then deposited onto the sample's surface, leaving behind electrons.

The second trick involves a technique that goes back to Albert Einstein's Nobel Prize-winning research into the photoelectric effect.

Researchers shine light on the sample, which is absorbed by the electrons and ejected from the sample in a way that can be measured.

"This study that we do is the only way to really understand what is happening inside the superconductor," Damascelli said.

The experiment is groundbreaking for two reasons: Scientists are now able to control the number of electrons on the surface of a superconductor, and can also observe them.

Damascelli said his experiments have already drawn international attention, and could have many broader uses.

"Technologically this is an approach that is very simple," he said.

"The control of surfaces and interfaces plays a vital role in the development of applications such as fuel cells and lossless power lines, and may lead to new materials altogether."

I'm not very familiar with the world of superconductors, but how much will this discovery alter the existing practises?

[Winston Blake]

Scientists said it was impossible.

But a team of University of B.C. researchers proved them wrong by developing [...]

I sure am glad those down-to-earth researchers proved the know-it-all ivory tower scientists wrong. Goddamn faithless scientists.

[Illuminatus Primus]

I hate tones like that, so fucking juvenile and pointless. I suppose these researchers were just laid-back part-time geniuses who kept it cool, like some Michael Bay character. It couldn't be that they are scientists too.