Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike an ordinary metallic conductor, whose resistance decreases gradually as its temperature is lowered, even down to near absolute zero, a superconductor has a characteristic critical temperature below which the resistance drops abruptly to zero. An electric current through a loop of superconducting wire can persist indefinitely with no power source.
Unconventional superconductors are materials that display superconductivity which does not conform to conventional BCS theory or its extensions.
High-temperature superconductors are defined as materials with critical temperature above 77 K, the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. They are only "high-temperature" relative to previously known superconductors, which function at even colder temperatures, close to absolute zero. The "high temperatures" are still far below ambient, and therefore require cooling. The first break through of high-temperature superconductor was discovered in 1986 by IBM researchers Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller. Although the critical temperature is around 35.1 K, this new type of superconductor was readily modified by Ching-Wu Chu to make the first high-temperature superconductor with critical temperature 93 K. Bednorz and Müller were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1987 "for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials". Most high-Tc materials are type-II superconductors.
An organic superconductor is a synthetic organic compound that exhibits superconductivity at low temperatures.
Silver selenide (Ag2Se) is the reaction product formed when selenium toning analog silver gelatine photo papers in photographic print toning. The selenium toner contains sodium selenite (Na2SeO3) as one of its active ingredients, which is the source of the selenide (Se2−) anion combining with the silver in the toning process.
Tin selenide, also known as stannous selenide, is an inorganic compound with the formula SnSe. Tin(II) selenide is a typical layered metal chalcogenide as it includes a group 16 anion (Se2−) and an electropositive element (Sn2+), and is arranged in a layered structure. Tin(II) selenide is a narrow band-gap (IV-VI) semiconductor structurally analogous to black phosphorus. It has received considerable interest for applications including low-cost photovoltaics, and memory-switching devices.
At atmospheric pressure, three allotropic forms of iron exist, depending on temperature: alpha iron, gamma iron, and delta iron (δ-Fe). At very high pressure, a fourth form exists, epsilon iron. Some controversial experimental evidence suggests the existence of a fifth high-pressure form that is stable at very high pressures and temperatures.
Iron-based superconductors (FeSC) are iron-containing chemical compounds whose superconducting properties were discovered in 2006. In 2008, led by recently discovered iron pnictide compounds, they were in the first stages of experimentation and implementation..
In chemistry, oxypnictides are a class of materials composed of oxygen, a pnictogen and one or more other elements. Although this group of compounds has been recognized since 1995, interest in these compounds increased dramatically after the publication of the superconducting properties of LaOFeP and LaOFeAs which were discovered in 2006 and 2008. In these experiments the oxide was partly replaced by fluoride.
The 122 iron arsenide unconventional superconductors are part of a new class of iron-based superconductors. They form in the tetragonal I4/mmm, ThCr2Si2 type, crystal structure. The shorthand name "122" comes from their stoichiometry; the 122s have the chemical formula AEFe2Pn2, where AE stands for alkaline earth metal (Ca, Ba Sr or Eu) and Pn is pnictide (As, P, etc.). These materials become superconducting under pressure and also upon doping. The maximum superconducting transition temperature found to date is 38 K in the Ba0.6K0.4Fe2As2. The microscopic description of superconductivity in the 122s is yet unclear.
Superstripes is a generic name for a phase with spatial broken symmetry that favors the onset of superconducting or superfluid quantum order. This scenario emerged in the 1990s when non-homogeneous metallic heterostructures at the atomic limit with a broken spatial symmetry have been found to favor superconductivity. Before a broken spatial symmetry was expected to compete and suppress the superconducting order. The driving mechanism for the amplification of the superconductivity critical temperature in superstripes matter has been proposed to be the shape resonance in the energy gap parameters ∆n that is a type of Fano resonance for coexisting condensates.
Bismuth selenide is a gray compound of bismuth and selenium also known as bismuth(III) selenide.
Distrontium ruthenate, also known as strontium ruthenate, is an oxide of strontium and ruthenium with the chemical formula Sr2RuO4. It was the first reported perovskite superconductor that did not contain copper. Strontium ruthenate is structurally very similar to the high-temperature cuprate superconductors, and in particular, is almost identical to the lanthanum doped superconductor (La, Sr)2CuO4. However, the transition temperature for the superconducting phase transition is 0.93 K (about 1.5 K for the best sample), which is much lower than the corresponding value for cuprates.
Molybdenum(IV) telluride, molybdenum ditelluride or just molybdenum telluride is a compound of molybdenum and tellurium with formula MoTe2, corresponding to a mass percentage of 27.32% molybdenum and 72.68% tellurium.
Platinum diselenide is a transition metal dichalcogenide with the formula PtSe2. It is a layered substance that can be split into layers down to three atoms thick. PtSe2 can behave as a metalloid or as a semiconductor depending on the thickness.
Niobium diselenide or niobium(IV) selenide is a layered transition metal dichalcogenide with formula NbSe2. Niobium diselenide is a lubricant, and a superconductor at temperatures below 7.2 K that exhibit a charge density wave (CDW). NbSe2 crystallizes in several related forms, and can be mechanically exfoliated into monatomic layers, similar to other transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. Monolayer NbSe2 exhibits very different properties from the bulk material, such as of Ising superconductivity, quantum metallic state, and strong enhancement of the CDW.
A polyhydride or superhydride is a compound that contains an abnormally large amount of hydrogen. This can be described as high hydrogen stoichiometry. Examples include iron pentahydride FeH5, LiH6, and LiH7. By contrast, the more well known lithium hydride only has one hydrogen atom.
Indium(II) selenide (InSe) is an inorganic compound composed of indium and selenium. It is a III-VI layered semiconductor. The solid has a structure consisting of two-dimensional layers bonded together only by van der Waals forces. Each layer has the atoms in the order Se-In-In-Se.
Tantalum diselenide is a compound made with tantalum and selenium atoms, with chemical formula TaSe2, which belongs to the family of transition metal dichalcogenides. In contrast to molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) or rhenium disulfide (ReS2), tantalum diselenide does not occur spontaneously in nature, but it can be synthesized. Depending on the growth parameters, different types of crystal structures can be stabilized.
