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Research reveals hidden magnetism
in superconductivity
Urbana-Champaign, IL, Mar. 7: While studying a compound
made of the elements cerium- rhodium-indium, researchers at
Los Alamos National Laboratory and the
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign have discovered that a magnetic state can coexist with
superconductivity in a specific temperature and pressure range. The discovery is
a step toward a deeper understanding of how Nature is organized in regimes
ranging from the fabric of the cosmos to the most fundamental components of
elementary particles.
In research published recently in the scientific journal Nature, Los Alamos
scientists Tuson Park, Joe D. Thompson, and their colleagues describe the
discovery of hidden magnetism in the CeRhIn5 compound. In studying the compound,
researchers found that a purely unconventional superconducting phase is
separated from a phase of coexisting magnetism and unconventional
superconductivity, with the boundary between these two phases controlled by the
laws of quantum physics.
Unconventional superconductors are materials that exhibit superconductivity, a
complete absence of electrical resistance under cold temperatures, but use
exotic mechanisms. Conventional wisdom has long held that the magnetism is
excluded as materials change phases, but the researchers now show that it is
merely hidden by unconventional superconductivity and can be made to reappear in
the presence of an applied magnetic field.
According to Thompson, "this discovery provides an exciting opportunity to
better understand how magnetism and unconventional superconductivity are related
in more-complex materials and may reveal more about the technologically
important field of high temperature superconductors."
At low temperatures, electrons in a metal can pair with each other to create
superconductivity, align in a magnetically ordered state, or do neither. Until
recently, these mutually exclusive options for electrons were the norm, but the
discovery of complex electronic materials like CeRhIn5, which can sustain more
exotic forms of superconductivity, now shows that electrons can participate
simultaneously in magnetism and superconductivity.
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