Superconducting properties and materials articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • News & Views |

    The determination of the order parameter symmetry is a critical issue in the study of unconventional superconductors. Ultrasound measurements on UTe2, a candidate spin-triplet superconductor, now provide evidence for the single-component nature of its order parameter.

    • Bohm-Jung Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Leggett modes can occur when superconductivity arises in more than one band in a material and represent oscillation of the relative phases of the two superconducting condensates. Now, this mode is observed in Cd3As2, a Dirac semimetal.

    • Joseph J. Cuozzo
    • , W. Yu
    •  & Enrico Rossi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The standard current–phase relation in tunnel Josephson junctions involves a single sinusoidal term, but real junctions are more complicated. The effects of higher Josephson harmonics have now been identified in superconducting qubit devices.

    • Dennis Willsch
    • , Dennis Rieger
    •  & Ioan M. Pop

  • News & Views |

    Some exotic metals exhibit competing electronic states that can be influenced by small perturbations. Now, a study of a kagome superconductor shows that this competition is exquisitely sensitive to weak strain fields, providing insight into its anomalous electronic properties.

    • Stephen D. Wilson

  • News & Views |

    Experiments with unprecedented energy and momentum resolution reveal the nature of the pairing symmetry in KFe2As2 and pave the way for a unified theoretical description of unconventional superconductivity in iron-based materials.

    • Norman Mannella

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is evidence that K3C60 can host a photo-induced superconducting state. Now, resonant excitation at low frequencies allows this phenomenon at room temperature and low pumping fluence.

    • E. Rowe
    • , B. Yuan
    •  & A. Cavalleri

  • Comment |

    Efficient superconducting diodes can be designed according to established physics. However, emerging concepts must be united with known mechanisms in order to unlock functionality in rectification and frequency conversion.

    • P. J. W. Moll
    •  & V. B. Geshkenbein

  • News & Views |

    A trilayer copper oxide superconductor, which exhibits the highest superconducting critical temperature as a function of the number of copper–oxygen planes, is shown to have unusual doped hole distribution and interaction between the planes.

    • Atsushi Fujimori

  • Article |

    Measurements of the electronic structure of a trilayer cuprate superconductor suggest that its high critical temperature is explained by the different doping levels of the layers. The combination of underdoped inner layer and overdoped outer layers supports superconductivity.

    • Xiangyu Luo
    • , Hao Chen
    •  & X. J. Zhou

  • Editorial |

    Claims of a room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor recently kicked up a storm on social media. As the dust settles, we take stock of what this experience can teach us.

  • News & Views |

    A real qubit is not an isolated unitary quantum system but is subject to noise from its environment. An experiment has now turned this interaction on its head, controlling the environment using the qubit itself.

    • Bayan Karimi
    •  & Jukka P. Pekola

  • News & Views |

    Hydrides are promising for harnessing high-temperature superconductivity, albeit with the need of extreme pressures. New experimental protocols establish a magnetic route to detect and study superconductivity compatible with high-pressure devices.

    • Swee K. Goh
    • , Wei Zhang
    •  & King Yau Yip

  • Editorial |

    Exacerbated by the impacts of climate change and the recent energy crisis, concentrated efforts towards more sustainable research have become matters of urgency, in particular for large-scale accelerator complexes and light sources.

  • Article |

    Interdependent networks display many interesting properties, but have not been studied in laboratory experiments because of the lack of a platform that manifests appropriate couplings. Now, a network of disordered superconductors accomplishes this.

    • I. Bonamassa
    • , B. Gross
    •  & S. Havlin

  • News & Views |

    The discovery of an unexpectedly large thermoelectric response in a 2D material establishes its power to probe the entropy carried by its charge carriers in the hotly debated strange metal phase.

    • Lu Li
    •  & Dechen Zhang

  • Article |

    It is very challenging to model hydrogen at high pressures and low temperatures because quantum effects become significant. A state-of-the-art numerical study shows that these effects cause important changes to the predicted phase diagram.

    • Lorenzo Monacelli
    • , Michele Casula
    •  & Francesco Mauri

  • Perspective |

    Majorana zero modes are emergent excitations in topological superconductors. This Perspective introduces the physics of these modes, recaps the recent history of the experimental search for them and discusses the future prognosis for success.

    • Sankar Das Sarma

  • Article |

    Adatoms on the surface of silicon can create two-dimensional superconductivity, the order parameter symmetry of which is currently not known. Now, evidence suggests it might be a topological chiral d-wave state.

    • F. Ming
    • , X. Wu
    •  & H. H. Weitering

  • Research Briefing |

    Measurements of the switching supercurrent statistics of a superconducting quantum interference device based on bismuth, a second-order topological insulator, reveal that excited Andreev states are surprisingly long-lived. This protection can be attributed to the splitting of the Andreev pairs carrying the supercurrent along separate crystal hinges of opposite helicities.

  • Research Briefing |

    The critical temperature of a high-temperature superconductor was systematically tuned using an ionic-liquid gating technique. Measurements of this system revealed a universal quantitative relationship between superconductivity and the strange-metal state, which gives insight into the mechanism responsible for high-temperature superconductivity.

  • Article |

    Superconductivity can emerge from a strange-metal state, but the exact relationship between them is unknown. Now, quantitative measurements reveal the dependence of resistivity in the strange metal on the superconducting transition temperature.

    • Xingyu Jiang
    • , Mingyang Qin
    •  & Zhongxian Zhao

  • Perspective |

    Recent experiments utilizing strain have shed light on the role of electronic nematicity in determining the properties of unconventional superconductors. This Perspective reviews these developments and discusses open questions.

    • Anna E. Böhmer
    • , Jiun-Haw Chu
    •  & Ming Yi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multidimensional coherent spectroscopy measurements in iron-based superconductors demonstrate how the coupling between a superconductor and strong light pulses can drive the transition into a non-equilibrium superconducting state with distinct collective modes.

    • L. Luo
    • , M. Mootz
    •  & J. Wang

  • News & Views |

    Superconductivity with an anisotropy is revealed in a layered material. This result points towards a version of superconductivity where spin–orbit interactions produce a material that is resilient to external magnetic fields.

    • Joseph Falson

  • News & Views |

    Making monolayer superconductors creates interesting effects, but often decreases the transition temperature compared to 3D materials. Instead, intercalating molecules into a layered superconductor tailors the superconductivity with fewer trade-offs.

    • Mark T. Edmonds

Browse broader subjects

Browse Superconducting properties and materials across other nature.com journals