Miassite, the first unconventional superconductor found in nature

Scientists fromAmes National Laboratory in the United States Determine I The first unconventional superconductor With chemical composition Also found in nature. the com. miassisite It is one of four naturally occurring minerals that act as superconductors when grown in the laboratory.

Researchers study – Published in Communications Materials – I found out that he has polymyositis Properties similar to high-temperature superconductors.

Superconductors, as their name suggests, are not simple conductors but they have… Zero electrical resistanceThat is, they do not obstruct the passage of electrical charges, which creates the well-known problem in conductors Heat dissipation phenomenon.

Another property of superconducting materials Meissner effectin the base Magnetic levitation. In practice, they can “float in the air” if accompanied by an external magnet that generates a magnetic field. This is because in superconductors the magnetic field is repelled, creating a “perfect diamond.”

They can be superconductors It is applied in many sectors with great advantagesFor example in electricity networks without losing up to 200 million megawatt-hours due to electrical resistance. Another use is in magnetic levitation trains, in creating faster and more efficient logic chips and memories, but also in tokamaks to achieve nuclear fusion. Last but not least, they can enable the development of more advanced and efficient medical imaging and scanning technologies.

So-called “conventional” superconductors have low critical temperatures. Critical temperature refers to the highest temperature at which a material acts as a superconductor. The dream is to have a superconductor that operates at high temperatures, such as ambient temperature, and requires low pressures.

Creating a high-temperature, low-pressure superconductor: Are we at a turning point?

In the 1980s, scientists discovered unconventional superconductors, many of which have critical temperatures much higher than conventional ones. However, these materials have been grown in the laboratory and, therefore, It is believed that unconventional superconductivity is not a natural phenomenon.

“Even if myiasis It is a mineral that was discovered near the Miass River in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia“It's a mineral,” said Paul Canfield, the scientist who synthesized high-quality miasite crystals for the project. under “Which generally do not grow as well-formed crystals.”

been used Three different tests to determine the unconventional superconductivity of myassiteAmong them is the “London Penetration Depth,” which measures the interaction of matter with a weak magnetic field. Another test involved creating defects in the material, which could affect the temperature at which it becomes a superconductor.

Unconventional superconductors are very sensitive to disorder, and the introduction of defects changes or suppresses the critical temperature. Moreover, it affects the critical magnetic field of the material. In meaxite, the team found that both the critical temperature and the critical magnetic field behave as expected in unconventional superconductors.

I study It improves scientists' understanding of how they work Unconventional superconductors and the promise of unlocking them New discoveries in physics and new uses for superconductor technology.

“Discovery of the mechanisms behind unconventional superconductivity is critical for economically viable applications of superconductorssaid Ruslan Prozorov, a scientist at Ames National Laboratory.