A researcher in Korea is receiving attention for revealing one of the unanswered mysteries of solid state physics, unconventional superconductivity, asserting that it arises from ‘quantum fluctuations associated with the anti-ferromagnetic quantum critical point’.

The National Research Foundation of Korea announced on May 7, that the research lead by Prof. Tuson Park and Ph.D. student Soon-beom Seo, both from the Department of Physics at Sungkyunkwan University, has revealed the underlying mechanism of high temperature superconductivity.

The characteristics of the superconductors are dictated by the electron pairs.

Even though the glue of the electron pairs of conventional superconductors has already been well understood, the pairing mechanism for  unconventional superconductors has yet to be established.

The research team added a small amount of tin(Sn) and applied external pressure to ‘CeRhln5’, the material that is known to possess the unconventional superconducting electron pairs. This study showed that the superconducting phenomena reacted in step with the change in external conditions.

The quantum critical point, the assumed source of superconductivity, precisely pinned the superconducting phase transition temperature. The research team explained that these experimental evidences underline that quantum fluctuations are the glue for electron Cooer pairs to exhibit unconventional superconductivity.

“This research not only sheds light to further understand the 30 year old mystery of high temperature superconductivity, but also is an astonishing report that can create new industrial possibilities by providing a blue print for room-temperature superconductivity” asserts Prof. Park.

The research which was conducted through the Creative Research Program funded by  the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning along with the National Research Foundation of Korea, was published in the March 4 issue of the journal ‘Nature Communications’.

The pictures is a graph that depicts electrical resistence of presseure and temperature in colors

Link to media report: http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2015/05/07/0200000000AKR20150507078500063.HTML?input=1195m