Researchers at NIST and the Joint Quantum Institute have developed a novel quantum simulation to study the effect of controlled disorder on high-temperature superconductors. They used ultracold gas atoms arranged in a two-dimensional system to mimic the behavior of electrons in superconducting materials.
The experiment involved creating two parallel “surfboard-shaped” samples of ultracold gas, introducing controlled amounts of disorder using an optical speckle beam, and observing the resulting interference patterns. The researchers found that increasing disorder led to reduced phase coherence in the atomic system, which they believe may be analogous to the behavior of Cooper pairs in superconducting materials.
The study provides direct evidence of the disorder-driven superconductor-to-insulator transition in two-dimensional systems, offering new insights into the mechanisms behind high-temperature superconductivity. The findings could help researchers better understand and potentially control the properties of superconducting materials for various applications.
Source: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2012/07/simulating-superconductors-touch-disorder
Keywords: Disorder, Superconductivity, Phase coherence, Cooper pairs, Quasi-2D systems
