superconductor

Some advanced electronic devices only function at extremely cold temperatures. Now engineers at NIST have developed a tiny cryogenic thermometer that uses a new mechanism to keep an eye on these sensitive instruments without taking up much room.

Superconductors – materials in which electricity flows without any resistance whatsoever – could be extremely useful. For the first time ever, engineers have created a superconductor out of a state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC).

Superconductivity has come to play a powerful role in many modern day technologies, and scientists are now claiming a big breakthrough in this area, creating what they say is the first material capable of superconductivity at room temperature.

“Strange metals” exhibit some unusual conductive properties and surprisingly, even have things in common with black holes. Now, a new study has characterized them in more detail, and found that strange metals constitute a new state of matter.

Graphene is ultrathin, ultra-strong and has some weird electrical properties. MIT researchers previously found a strange pattern emerged in “twisted” graphene structures. Now they’ve studied it more closely and found it works better with more layers.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have found a superconducting material naturally stable in two states at once, which is useful for quantum computers.

Superconductors can conduct electricity with absolutely no loss, so they could be revolutionary if not for one little problem: they only work if kept extremely cold. But now researchers at Max Planck have reported a new record high temperature for superconductivity, at a toasty -23° C (-9.4° F).

Practical quantum computers may be another step closer to reality, thanks again to graphene. The bits of information in quantum computers (qubits) can exist in two states at once, and now researchers have managed to record just how long that superposition state can last in a qubit made of graphene.

​Researchers at Harvard University say they've managed to create the first-ever sample of metallic hydrogen.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge claim to have discovered a method to trigger the superconducting properties of graphene without actually altering its chemical structure.

The latest graphene breakthrough comes in the form of a method for using the supermaterial to create two-dimensional materials that could be used in the next generation of lasers, electronics and sensors.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute may have found a new superconducting state of matter that is better suited to high temperatures, in a development that brings the dream of mainstream maglev trains and highly energy-efficient electronics a little closer to reality.