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Superconductivity

Disorder in the ranks

Nature volume 394, pages 126–127 (1998)Cite this article

By changing the dopant in a high-temperature superconductor, the transition temperature can be changed markedly. Why this happens has been obscure, but on page 157of this issue1, Attfield et al. show that it is due to lattice strains, caused by disorder in the cation size. This solves a ten-year-old puzzle — but leaves the question of the microscopic mechanism open.

In the earliest days of research into high-temperature superconductivity, many believed that a microscopic explanation based on the theory of low-temperature superconductivity was possible. In this picture, electron-phonon coupling binds electrons into ‘Cooper pairs’ below Tc, the superconducting transition temperature. (Phonons are quanta of lattice vibration.) The total pair momentum is unaffected by lattice interactions, and the pairs therefore flow without resistance.

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Figure 1: Super conduct: the line of soldiers has less size disorder than the marching band.

S. & .N. GEARY/TONY STONE

References

  1. Attfield, J. P., Kharlanov, A. L. & McAllister, J. A. Nature 394, 157–159 (1998).

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  2. Ginzburg, V. L. Contemp. Phys. 33, 15–23 (1992).

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  3. Anderson, P. W. The Theory of High Temperature Superconductivity (Princeton Univ. Press, NJ, 1997).

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  1. the Department of Chemistry and the Princeton Materials Institute, Bowen Hall, 70 Prospect Avenue, Princeton, 08540, New Jersey, USA

    R. J. Cava

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  1. R. J. Cava
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Cava, R. Disorder in the ranks. Nature 394, 126–127 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/28044

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