Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
A new superconducting material has been discovered by researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan.
The material fits into a class of “unconventional superconductors” which could lead to high-temperature superconductivity that then could be used in transport, quantum technologies, power transmission and other applications.
Superconducting devices are also used in advanced technologies such as superconducting magnets in medical devices.
Materials which exhibit superconductivity have some very useful properties. These include zero electrical resistance and the ability to expel magnetic fields leading to “levitation” effects.
But superconductors are expensive because they generally need to be cooled to ultra-low temperatures.
Materials scientists are on the lookout for superconductors which have a critical temperature – the temperature at which the material begins to have superconducting properties – above 77 Kelvin (-196.15°C). Above this temperature, liquid nitrogen could be used to keep superconductors cool rather than liquid helium.
The new research started as an undergraduate student project. The team combined iron, nickel, and zirconium in different ratios. This led them to create an alloy with the same crystal structure as a group of promising superconducting materials called tetragonal transition-metal zirconides.
“The obtained superconductivity phase diagram exhibits a dome-shaped trend, which is similar to unconventional superconductors, where magnetic fluctuations are essential for superconductivity,” the researchers write in a paper published in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds.
The team plans to conduct further experiments on the new compound to determine more of its structural, electronic and magnetic properties.
