SLAC topics

Superconductivity RSS feed

Superconductivity is the property of certain materials to conduct electricity without energy loss when they are cooled below a critical temperature.

DOE explains...superconductivity

LCLS-II cooldown illustration.

Video
SIMES researcher Danfeng Li explains the delicate ‘Jenga chemistry’ behind making a new nickel oxide material, the first in a potential new family of...
Video
News Feature

Waves of magnetic excitation sweep through this exciting new material whether it’s in superconducting mode or not – another possible clue to how unconventional...

A brightly colored top is seen spinning between two layers of gray, purple and red spheres representing atoms in a nickel oxide superconductor.
Illustration
A muon, center, spins like a top within the atomic lattice of a thin film of superconducting nickelate. These elementary particles can sense the...
A brightly colored top is seen spinning between two layers of gray, purple and red spheres representing atoms in a nickel oxide superconductor.  The top represents a fundamental particle called a muon.
News Feature

Researchers discover they contain a phase of quantum matter, known as charge density waves, that’s common in other unconventional superconductors. In other ways, though...

Artist's illustration shows quantum states called superconductivity and charge density waves atop an atomic lattice of balls and sticks
News Feature

Scientists discover superconductivity and charge density waves are intrinsically interconnected at the nanoscopic level, a new understanding that could help lead to the next...

A beam of light lands on a series of squiggly lines. Where the beam lands, the lines are straight.
Illustration
A half-mile-long stretch of tunnel in Menlo Park, California is now colder than most of the universe. It houses a new superconducting particle accelerator...
LCLS-II cooldown
News Feature

Scientists discover that triggering superconductivity with a flash of light involves the same fundamental physics that are at work in the more stable states...

News Feature

The results cap 15 years of detective work aimed at understanding how these materials transition into a superconducting state where they can conduct electricity...

Conceptual illlustration showing a beam of light entering from the right and hitting a material, ejecting a sphere representing an electron
News Feature

Spawned by the spins of electrons in magnetic materials, these tiny whirlpools behave like independent particles and could be the future of computing. Experiments...

Illustration of skyrmions -- little whirlpools of magnetism formed by the spins of atoms.
News Feature

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

An illustration showing a 1D chain of carbon and oxygen molecules with red springs representing natural vibrations in their atomic lattice.
News Feature

Nickelate materials give scientists an exciting new window into how unconventional superconductors carry electric current with no loss at relatively high temperatures.

Illustration showing nickelate and cuprate superconductors as cartoon characters that are either close friends holding hands or neighbors talking over a fence.
News Feature

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

Illustration depicting how two types of waves within superconducting materials intertwine to form a third type known as charge-density waves