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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number EP/P033830/1
Title Non-ergodic dynamics and topological-sector fluctuations in layered high-temperature superconductors
Status Completed
Energy Categories Nuclear Fission and Fusion(Nuclear Fusion) 5%;
Not Energy Related 95%;
Research Types Basic and strategic applied research 100%
Science and Technology Fields PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics) 20%;
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials) 10%;
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Applied Mathematics) 70%;
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation Not Cross-cutting 100%
Principal Investigator Dr M F Faulkner
Mathematics
University of Bristol
Award Type Standard
Funding Source EPSRC
Start Date 01 August 2017
End Date 18 October 2023
Duration 75 months
Total Grant Value £304,843
Industrial Sectors Supercond; magn. &quant.fluids
Region South West
Programme NC : Physical Sciences
 
Investigators Principal Investigator Dr M F Faulkner , Mathematics, University of Bristol
  Industrial Collaborator Project Contact , École normale supérieure, Paris (ENS Paris), France
Web Site
Objectives
Abstract 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
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Added to Database 01/02/19