Scientists discover new type of game-changing superconductivity with no energy loss

A collaborative effort between researchers in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany has led to the discovery of a third type of superconductivity that does not have energy loss and could open doors to new applications in quantum computing and beyond, a press release shared with Interesting Engineering said.

Discovered more than a century ago, superconductors are known for their ability to conduct electricity without offering any resistance. However, this ability exists only under limited conditions, mostly when temperatures drop to zero (-273 degrees Celsius).

Researchers first demonstrated high-temperature superconductivity in 1986, which has helped develop advances in fields such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and quantum computing. However, only two types of superconductors have existed. Now, a third type of superconductor could open new applications and avenues of research.

Differences in superconductors

Superconducting materials have conventionally been classified into Type I and Type II. Type I semiconductors expel their magnetic fields until the intensity of the magnetic field eliminates their superconductive properties.

Type II superconductors, on the other hand, exhibit a mix between ordinary and superconducting states. They also allow magnetic fields to penetrate the material through quantized flux before destroying superconductivity.

The penetration results in the formation of supercurrent vortices, referred to as Abrikosov vortices. These vortices have normal cores and cause finite resistance, leading to energy losses and requiring the creation of special pinning mechanisms to prevent them.

“Type III superconductors do not have normal cores and move without creating any resistance,” said  Valerii Vinokur, the Chief Technology Office at Terra Quantum, in an email to IE.

“This means that type III superconductors keep their superconducting properties even in the applied magnetic fields, and there is no need to create a special pinning mechanism for vortices, which is a good practical problem in usual type II superconductors. ”

Under high external magnetic fields, Type III superconductors see their superconductivity destroyed but do not see a break of Cooper pairs responsible for superconductive properties . This ensures that normal cores are not formed in the vortices, and the dissipationless behavior opens up new opportunities for superconducting devices.

How was the discovery made?

The discovery made by researchers at the University of Perugia, Italy, SwissScientific, and Terra Quantum, a quantum computing technology firm located in Germany and Switzerland, has been in the works for a few decades now.

In an email to IE, Vinokur added that the team had first theorized the properties of a third type of superconductor as early as 1996 and made technical advances about its topological advances in a paper published in 2021.

In another paper published last year, the research team successfully predicted the superconductor’s resistance behavior and proved it through experimental demonstrations.

As a quantum computing technology company, Terra Quantum is seeking superconducting qubits that can work at elevated temperatures. It has found a solution in Type III superconductors.

“The superconducting qubits promise to revolutionize the whole quantum computing industry, providing qubits working without power losses,” Vinokur concluded in the email to IE.

The research findings were published in the journal Physical Review B .