'Jenga Chemistry' Creates New Family of Superconductors (IMAGE)

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

'Jenga Chemistry' Creates New Family of Superconductors

Caption

To create a new type of superconducting material, scientists at SLAC and Stanford first made a thin film of a common material known as perovskite, left; "doped" it with strontium; and then exposed it to a chemical that yanked out a layer of oxygen atoms, much like removing a stick from a tower of Jenga blocks. This made the film flip into a different atomic structure known as a nickelate, right. Tests showed that this nickelate can conduct electricity with no resistance.

Credit

Danfeng Li/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University

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