Daniel Porter
Jun 13, 2012
Featured

Heavy electrons and superconductivity

Princeton researchers have demonstrated how entangled electrons are very "heavy" in certain crystals, and how this relates to superconductivity. A major problem in condensed matter research is understanding and developing high-temperature superconductivity, and this work is a major step in the right direction. The research team constructed a special cryogenic scanning-tunnelling microscope to visualize electron wave patterns. By preparing a sample with atomic defects in the structure, they were able to image electrons becoming entangled -- the entangled wavefunctions "flowed" around the defects -- and display large wavelength characteristics indicating the presence of heavy electrons. "What is neat, and our studies confirm this, is that you really need to be on the verge of these two kinds of behaviors — sluggish and speedy — to get superconductivity," Yazdani said. "That is the circumstance most favorable to occurrence of heavy electron superconductivity."