IBM Research scientists adopt techniques from spintronics
to pursue the answer
Discovered a century ago, superconductivity
promises to drastically improve storage and memory devices, create highly
sensitive sensors, and make energy transmission cheaper. The challenge now is
that the highest temperature superconducting material – demonstrated 25 years
ago by IBM Research scientists – is liquid nitrogen, which superconducts at 77
Kelvin (-321F). This Nobel
still stands as the highest temperature
superconductivity proven and recorded, but scientists worldwide are after
higher temperature superconductors.
“A superconducting wire the diameter of your thumb could
carry as much power, more efficiently, than a copper cable the thickness of
your arm,” said Kevin Roche, a scientist at IBM Research – Almaden.
Following the principles of physics demonstrated by Mueller
and Bednorz in 1987, plus techniques derived from investigating spintronics
– the study of electron spin across and between carefully arranged materials –
IBM researchers, led by IBM Fellow Stuart Parkin, believe they are on the path
to discover synthetic materials that will superconduct at room-temperature
(297K or 75F).
Stretching back to DRAM
researchers have conducted thousands of experiments that control the unique
electron spin activity within precisely engineered material layers. Their use
of spintronics to produce sensor devices that read smaller and smaller data
bits also formed the core component of Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) – a
non-volatile, faster, less expensive option to flash memory.
Combining Spintronics with Superconductivity
“We’ve gotten to the point where we understand how to
manipulate spin and its behavior in artificially engineered solids,” said
Roche. “Right now, the current class of superconductors work at liquid nitrogen
temperatures or 77 Kelvin (-321F).
“Imagine if instead of liquid nitrogen, all
we needed was room-temperature water, about 75 degrees F – that’s 400 degrees
Fahrenheit higher than what is currently possible today.”
Parkin and the researchers at the spintronics lab in Almaden
are studying the phenomenon of spin-engineered materials and discovering exotic
behaviors – and with new classes of materials cropping up, they believe there
is now enough collective knowledge about how spin behaves that they might be
able to come up with a pathway to develop room-temperature superconductivity.
“Normally, electrons go through wire and they bounce around
and generate heat – so you lose some of the power,” Roche says. A
superconductor has lossless transmission – meaning all of the electricity goes
through and no power is lost.”
The prospect of power and energy transmitted via
superconductors at the temperature of water is attractive because water is
easily accessible and inexpensive. If room-temperature superconductivity is
achieved, superconducting materials can be used in everyday technology.
IBM Research Colloquia: Synthetic Routes to Room Temperature
In a two-day workshop held October 17 and 18 at IBM Research
– Almaden in San Jose, CA, chemists, physicists and theorists from academy and
industry worldwide will come together for the 2012 Almaden Institute, “Superconductivity
297K – Synthetic Routes to Room Temperature Superconductivity.”
The workshop will be led by Claudia Felser, director of the
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, and Stuart Parkin. Stuart also manages IBM’s IBM’s Magnetoelectronics Group, and
director of the IBM-Stanford Spintronic Science and Applications Center where
he is a consulting professor.
Join the conversation: @IBMResearch #SC297K with IBM
Research expert Xin Jiang, tweeting live from the event
Labels: Almaden, DRAM, high-Tc superconductivity, MRAM, spintronics