Groundbreaking Superconducting Diode Made Using High-Temperature Cuprate Superconductors
Kim, Harvard, and fellow researchers have made a major breakthrough in the field of superconductors. They have developed a promising candidate for the world’s first high-temperature, superconducting diode – a switch that allows current to flow in one direction. What makes this development unique is that it is made out of thin cuprate crystals instead of the lower temperature and more expensive superconductors usually used in such devices.
The team, led by S.Y. Frank Zhao, a former student at the Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and now a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, used an air-free, cryogenic crystal manipulation method in ultrapure argon to engineer a clean interface between two extremely thin layers of the cuprate bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide (BSCCO).
The team’s experiments revealed that the maximum supercurrent that can pass through the interface without resistance is different depending on the current’s direction. Additionally, they demonstrated electronic control over the interfacial quantum state by reversing its polarity.
This level of control allowed the team to create a switchable, high-temperature superconducting diode – a demonstration of foundational physics that could one day be incorporated into computing technology, such as a quantum bit.
To read more about this groundbreaking research, please visit Journal Science.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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