New Signature of the Pseudogap Phase, a Key in the Enigma of Superconductivity at High Temperatures

New Signature of the Pseudogap Phase, a Key in the Enigma of Superconductivity at High Temperatures

Physicists have identified the transition that could explain why copper oxides have such impressive superconducting behavior.

Closing a twenty-year-old debate in the field, the researchers discovered that a mysterious quantum phase transition, called “pseudogap”, leads to a sharp decrease in the number of conductive electrons available for the pairing required for superconductivity. “It is very likely that this critical point explains why superconductivity manifests itself, and why it does so forcefully,”says Louis Taillefer. The results have been published in Nature.

Louis Taillefer has collaborated with his team and other members of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) including: Cyril Proust (Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses), Doug Bonn, Walter Hardy and Ruixing Liang (all three from the University of British Columbia). The study combined the University of British Columbia’s expertise in cuprate synthesis with the Université of Sherbrooke expertise in terms of material characterization analysis and the skills of the Toulouse laboratory in producing powerful magnetic fields.

 

Link to the article in Nature