Non-ergodic dynamics and topological-sector fluctuations in layered high-temperature superconductors

Completed

Nuclear Fission and Fusion(Nuclear Fusion)
Not Energy Related

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Applied Mathematics)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr M F Faulkner
Mathematics
University of Bristol

Standard

EPSRC

01 August 2017

18 October 2023

75 months

£304,843

Supercond; magn. &quant.fluids

South West

NC : Physical Sciences

Dr M F Faulkner, Mathematics, University of Bristol

Project Contact, École normale supérieure, Paris (ENS Paris), France

At low enough temperatures, the constituent electrons of certain materials flow as a single body with zero electrical resistance. This is called superconductivity. The behaviour was first measured in solid mercury, which superconducts at around -270C and is therefore classed as a low-temperature superconductor. Certain copper-oxide-based materials, however, can superconduct at much higher temperatures: up to -130C. These materials therefore belong to the separate group known as high-temperature superconductors. This group of materials have extremely complex multi-layered crystal structures that are difficult to model, meaning that a theory of high-temperature superconductivity remains one of the major unsolved problems in condensed-matter physics. At any given temperature, a superconductor will either be in its normal or superconducting state. Recent experiments on copper-oxide-based materials measured large fluctuations in their electrical resistances at the transition temperature between these two states. The large fluctuations are a result of the complex structures of the materials: a theoretical model for this phenomenon will therefore uncover details of these structures and drive the research community towards a complete theory of high-temperature superconductivity. This will lead to advances in the myriad engineering applications of superconductivity, which include superconductor-based quantum computing, magnetic resonance imaging, particle confinement in synchrotrons such as the Large Hadron Collider, plasma confinement in fusion reactors, and superconducting quantum interference devices used for high-precision magnetic measurements in medicine and further afield

01/02/19