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Université de Sherbrooke-led research team
discovers the nature of superconductors
Montreal, Canada, 31 May 2007: In a
paper published today in the magazine Nature, a team of researchers from the
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), led by
Université de Sherbrooke Professor
Louis Taillefer, have laid to rest a 20-year-old mystery about the nature of an
exotic class of materials known as high-temperature superconductors.
These materials, which conduct
electricity with no resistance, hold enormous technological promise for power
transmission, levitating trains, magnetic medical imaging, wireless
communications, quantum computing, and many
more related applications. In the past, scientists have been held back from
harnessing the full power of these materials, because of unanswered fundamental
questions, such as whether these materials are metals or
insulators.
In experiments carried out at
the National Pulsed Magnetic Field Laboratory in Toulouse, France, using
superconducting crystals created by CIFAR researchers at the University of
British Columbia, Professor Taillefer's
team observed a phenomenon called "quantum oscillations" in a high-temperature
superconductor, which provide unambiguous evidence that these materials are
metals.
"The results are crystal
clear," said Professor Taillefer. "High-temperature superconductors were
discovered in 1987, and only now do we finally have concrete knowledge about
their deep nature. This discovery gives both theorists and experimentalists
something real to work with."
Superconductors are already used in MRI scanners,
trains, power lines and in other areas, but their application is severely
limited. Despite their name, high-temperature superconductors need to be cooled
to more than 100 degrees
below zero C in order to function. Scientists have been working to raise the
upper temperature limit, but have been hampered by a lack of knowledge about the
nature of the materials themselves.
"This historic discovery is a
quintessential CIFAR story," said Dr.Chaviva M. Hosek, President and CEO of
CIFAR. "We have invested twenty years in superconductivity research and fostered
collaboration among the leading thinkers in the field across Canada and around
the world. It was a risk, but now we see the payoff."
"Professor Louis Taillefer's
distinctive research unravels the exciting new field of superconductivity," adds
Professor Bruno-Marie Béchard, Rector of the Université de Sherbrooke. "Through
its innovation and leadership in the
field, the Université de Sherbrooke attracts world-recognized experts, such as
Louis Taillefer, who team with other leading academics and researchers to
literally change the course of mankind with outstanding advances."
This discovery will help
scientists find ways to raise the upper temperature limit, with the ultimate
goal of creating room temperature superconductors. If these materials no longer
need to be supercooled, it would mean, for instance, that MRI's would shrink
from the size of a garden shed to the dimensions of a laptop. Superconducting
power lines would make the transmission of electricity much more efficient. And
if researchers can understand electron behaviour in superconductors the way they
already understand it in semiconductors, the implication for the next generation
of
computers is unlimited.
Louis Taillefer: at the heart of matter
Professor and physician Louis Taillefer holds the Canada
Research Chair in Quantum Materials at the Université de Sherbrooke, and was
named Scientist of the Year by Radio-Canada in 2002, Steacie Fellow by Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and Fellow of the
American Physical Society. His research work is supported in part by NSERC and
by the Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies.
About CIFAR
Created in 1982, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
recruits top Canadian and international researchers to answer complex,
multidisciplinary questions that have major impact on public policy, technology,
and knowledge creation. Quantum Materials is one of the Institute's 12 current
research programs.
A word about the Université de Sherbrooke
Ranked best university or best French-speaking university in
all three major university rankings in Canada, Université de Sherbrooke is also
the Canadian leader for royalties from research. Internationally recognized for
its outstanding tradition of innovation, Université de Sherbrooke is also
renowned for the quality of its forward-looking teaching approaches to the more
than 35000 students who are enrolled in its numerous undergraduate and graduate
programs offered by the nine faculties on its six campuses.
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