The chemically controlled chains reveal an ultrastrong attraction between electrons that may help cuprate superconductors carry electrical current with no loss at relatively high temperatures.

Known as “pair-density waves,” it may be key to understanding how superconductivity can exist at relatively high temperatures.

Theory suggests that quantum critical points may be analogous to black holes as places where all sorts of strange phenomena can exist in a quantum material. Now scientists are trying to pin down where this particular quantum critical point might be.

Discovered at SLAC and Stanford, this new class of unconventional superconductors is starting to give up its secrets – including a surprising 3D metallic state.