Fifth state of matter used to create superconductivity

A team of researchers from the University of Tokyo in Japan has managed a world first: to create a superconductor from the fifth state of matter, or the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC).

Superconductors are materials that allow electricity to flow without any resistance and could prove extremely beneficial for the future of electronics.

The team’s research was published in Advances in science on Fridays.

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The well-known states of matter are liquids, solids and gases, then come the plasmas. The least known of all are BECs, which occur when a boson gas is cooled to the coldest possible temperature.

At that point, the researchers demonstrated that quantum phenomena can be noticed on a macro scale. “A BEC is a unique state of matter in that it is not made up of particles, but rather waves, “said Kozo Okazaki, lead author of the study.” When they cool down to almost absolute zero, the atoms of some materials litter space. “

“The resulting matter behaves as if it were a single entity with new properties that the previous solid, liquid or gaseous states lacked,” continued Okazaki.

Creation of superconductivity in a BEC

Now, the team has shown that it is possible to create superconductivity in a BEC, something that has never been confirmed in other experiments.

The team managed to create a BEC from a cloud of iron and selenium atoms. And the main part of the discovery happened thanks to a superposition with a similar form of matter known as the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) regime.

The team examined what would happen during the transition between a BCS and a BEC and whether or not superconductivity in BECs was possible. Until now it had only been possible with BCS.

Sure enough, superconductivity could also be observed in BECs.

“It was extremely challenging, but our unique observation apparatus and method verified it: there is a smooth transition between these regimes. And this suggests a more general theory behind superconduction,” Okazaki explained.