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Studenten im Sommer auf dem Campus Nord, rote Zahnräder im Hintergrund © Roland Baege​/​TU Dortmund

International research on exotic superconductors: New class described theoretically

© Andreas Buchheit
Superconductors - materials through which electricity can flow completely resistance-free - are of central importance for many high-tech applications, be it quantum computers, medical technology or high-performance energy applications. In a project funded by the Klaus Tschira Foundation, scientists from Saarbrücken, Dortmund, Eindhoven and Toronto are now spending 2.5 years investigating the physical principles of these materials, which are still not fully understood.

It all began in 1911 with the discovery that certain metals exhibit properties at extremely low temperatures, close to absolute zero of around minus 273 degrees Celsius, that they do not have above these temperatures: They conduct electricity with absolutely no resistance. Materials that behave in this way have since been called superconductors. In 1986, physicists discovered that there are also high-temperature superconductors whose transition temperature is significantly higher than near absolute zero. In this case, the term high temperature means that these materials conduct electricity without resistance even at minus 196 degrees Celsius. However, scientists do not yet know exactly why this is the case.

New project for stable high-temperature superconductors

More basic research is needed to better understand the processes in superconductors and to develop materials that can be used at lower temperatures. This is where physicist JProf. Benedikt Fauseweh from TU Dortmund University and mathematicians Dr. Andreas Buchheit from Saarland University, Dr. Torsten Keßler from TU Eindhoven and Prof. Kirill Serkh from the University of Toronto come into play. In the new project, they are working together to better understand what happens inside a high-temperature superconductor so that electricity can flow through it without resistance.

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