ILL investigates little-understood high-temperature superconductivity

The mechanisms that underpin superconductivity at temperatures above 20 K are not fully understood. Researchers at Irig ran some experiments at ILL that could shed new light on a problem that has long confounded scientists.
They observed, at the atomic scale, an iron-nickel-arsenic pnictogen superconducting at 50 K. The images obtained showed iron atoms organized in a square planar lattice, with their magnetic moments pointing toward the center and vibration perpendicular to this square plane.
It is the interaction between the magnetic moments and the itinerant electrons in the material that cause the electrons to form bosons, called Cooper pairs, characteristic of superconductivity.
It is not yet known whether this mechanism is true for all iron-based superconductors or, potentially, for other materials as well.

Contact: frederic.bourdarot@cea.fr

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