Superconductivity research: Scientists discover potential new state of matter

According to a latest research led by a group of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US, a potential new state of matter may help explain phenomena like superconductivity.

Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic flux fields occurring in certain materials, called superconductors, when cooled below a characteristic critical temperature. 

The phenomenon is largely used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), particle accelerators, magnetic fusion devices, and microwave filters.

The latest findings, published in the journal Nature suggests that among superconducting materials in high magnetic fields, the phenomenon of electronic symmetry breaking is common.

The ability to find similarities and differences among classes of materials with phenomena such as this helps establish the essential ingredients that cause novel functionalities such as superconductivity.

The high-magnetic-field state of the heavy fermion superconductor CeRhIn5 revealed a state in which the material's electrons aligned in a way to reduce the symmetry of the original crystal, something that now appears to be universal among unconventional superconductors.

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Unconventional superconductivity develops near a phase boundary separating magnetically ordered and magnetically disordered phases of a material.

Talking about the same Filip Ronning of Los Alamos National Laboratory has said, "The appearance of the electronic alignment, called nematic behaviour, in a prototypical heavy-fermion superconductor highlights the interrelation of nematicity and unconventional superconductivity, suggesting nematicity to be common among correlated superconducting materials."

Heavy fermions are intermetallic compounds, containing rare earth or actinide elements.

"These heavy fermion materials have a different hierarchy of energy scales than is found in transition metal and organic materials, but they often have similar complex and intertwined physics coupling spin, charge and lattice degrees of freedom," Ronning was quoted further.

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(With PTI inputs)