Volume 4 Issue 2, February 2008
A superconducting current running in a closed loop is an ideal demonstration of quantum physics. As all the electrons have the same wavefunction, the amount of magnetic field that can pass through the ring – the magnetic flux – must be quantized in units of the Planck constant, h, divided by the total charge. But in a superconductor, the electrons are bound into pairs, so the total charge is 2e, yielding a fluxoid of h/2e – a hallmark of superconductivity. Now, however, Florian Loder and co-workers show that for certain superconductors, a fluxoid of h/e is possible.
Editorial
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