Cuprate experiment reveals a quantum tug-of-war limiting superconductivity

[Vulcan]

A new experiment may help explain why high temperature superconductors cannot work at even higher temperatures. The Simons Foundation reports on work by theorists at the Flatiron Institute and experimentalists at INRS in Quebec, published in Nature Physics

The team studied a cuprate, a copper based material that superconducts at relatively high temperatures. Using laser pulses, they rapidly pushed it into a mysterious phase known as the pseudogap state, then measured how electrons behaved using a technique called ARPES at INRS's Advanced Laser Light Source

PhD student Dario Armanno led the data collection under Fabio Boschini, while simulations were led by corresponding author Olivier Gingras. Only one theoretical model fitted the data: one where the pseudogap and superconductivity compete with each other. That challenges the popular view that superconductivity in cuprates builds on top of the pseudogap

Even the best cuprates have to be kept below about 151 kelvin, which is still extremely cold. Gingras suggests that suppressing the pseudogap might raise the temperature at which superconductivity works, although he stresses that practical uses are a long way off

Room temperature superconductors remain one of physics' great dreams, with huge implications for energy and technology, including quantum computing hardware. Understanding the competition between states is a meaningful step. Theory and experiment working closely together is exactly how hard problems like this get cracked

Will we ever see room temperature superconductors? And how much does basic physics like this matter for quantum technology?

Quantum Tug-of-War Limits Higher-Temperature Superconductivitywww.simonsfoundation.org