Graphene Made Superconductive by Doping with Lithium Atoms

In today’s scientific world, there is nothing that can surprise you anymore. This is because of the fact that the scientists have been making a lot of improvisations in the world of physics as in every other field. And that is the reason as to why you will be glad to know about the new sort of superconductor. According to the recent research, grapheme has now been discovered to be the best possible superconductor if it is doped with the right proportion of Lithium atoms as then the charge transfer rate becomes even higher than it formerly used to be. But in order to know more of it, you definitely need to read this up.

How is it made possible? 

Graphene is the single carbon atom layer of the same kind of material that has been subjected to the tests as to how it can be connected to a number of devices all at a go. In this case, a thought has been subjected as to how the thing can be evolved to have the best out of its super electrical properties and its super conducting phenomena as well. Formerly it was found that if Graphene was coated with some other materials, then it could serve an even better purpose than it formerly did but the scientists could not figure out what it is. The finally after years of research it has been brought out that if lithium can be used, then it may turn out to be just the thing that is required to get hold of the desired effect.

The process 

In order to bring out the result, what the scientists did is to have samples of the right kind of Graphene and that too on a Silicon Carbide substrate- then the samples were kept in a vacuum area and cooled to 8K. When that was done, the samples were then accessorised with the lithium atoms and then the results turned out to be really amazing.

In this way, the energy gap of the electrons could be reduced to a great extent. Now the scientists are probing deeper and conducting further tests as to whether it is possible to have a complete loss of electrical resistance which i turn will enhance the power of the superconductor and serve the purpose in an even better way. In case of further demonstrations, amends will be made in order to see whether the superconductor can actually expel the external magnetic field and that is the test that will reveal that it is a true sort of superconductor.

It was at first theoretically proposed that if the right sort of lithium could be used up as a doping material, then it could bring about positive results. But the recent researches have revealed that it is something more than it and is indeed a grand thing that has come up and this superconductor can be used in a lot of fields as because of its multi faceted manner of working.

Superconductivity Record Bolstered By Magnetic Data

Germany Scientist Identified Superconducting – 203 K

The quest for a material which could conduct electricity excluding the resistance of room temperature has motivated scientists in Germany and they have identified a common molecule hydrogen sulphide superconducting at a record breaking 203 kelvin when the same is exposed to very high pressure.

 The outcome approves initial observations which were released by the researchers late last year. It has alsobeen verified from data collected from various other groups though some of the physicist had asked to be cautious. According to Ivan Schuller from the University of California in San Diego, he states that `the results seems to be promising but are not yet watertight.

However, Antonio Bianconi, director of the Rome International Centre for Materials Science Superstripes – RICMASS, is of the opinion that the evidence is compelling. He has described the finding as – main breakthrough, in quest for a room temperature superconductor since the discovery of 1986 superconductivity in cuprates, exotic ceramic compounds which display the phenomenon up to 164 K. Mikhail Eremets together with two other physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz reported last December, that they had found hydrogen sulfide superconducting below 190 K.

The Meissner Effect

When the same was placed a 10 micrometre-wide sample of the material in a diamond anvil cell, subjected to a pressure of around 1.5 million atmospheres, it was found that its electrical resistance reduced more than a factor of 1,000 when it cooled below the threshold or critical temperature. However, at that point of time, the researchers were unable to demonstrate a second key characteristic of superconductivity which is known as Meissner effect, wherein samples tend to excel a magnetic field when the same is cooled below the critical temperature.

The authors in their latest work had got together along with two physicists from the University of Mainz for the purpose of building a non-magnetic cell to acquire a very sensitive form of magnetometer known as SQUID. They had placed 50 micrometre wide samples of hydrogen sulphide under pressure of up to 2 million atmospheres in an external magnetic field, gradually warming them, beginning from a few degrees above zero. They investigated the sign of the Meissner effect, a sudden increase in the magnetization signal of the sample, when the temperature had increased beyond 203 K.

Researchers Cynical on Results

The researchers measured a higher critical temperature than they did last year, to observe tiny variation in the samples’ crystal structure. Bianconi has stated that several superconductivity researchers were cynical on the results when in March, at the conference of the American Physical Society in San Antonio, Texas, they were presented.

A physicist at Osaka University in Japan, Katsuya Shimizu stated that he together with his colleagues had confirmed the 190 K electrical transition, utilising their own refrigerator in holding many samples and cells that were provided by Eremets. Sculler debates that the Mainz group could do some more investigations to ensure that they have not overlooked an uncontrolled artefact like the background noise selected during the subtle measurement of magnetization.