Graphene could be a superconductor

Experts from Stanford University and U.S. Department of Energy knows how to make graphene – a single layer of carbon atoms plate – superconducting, ie, capable of transmitting electricity without losses.

Researchers led by Shuolong Yang fired a dense beam of ultraviolet radiation multilayer structures of graphene and thin sheets of calcium.

Pretty long been known that under certain conditions, such a combination is superconducting. It was believed that without the second component of the graph lacks the ability to transfer electricity without losses.

Adding calcium (orange) between the graphene sheets (blue “cell”), scientists are superconducting material. Only now there is reason to believe that it is the main superconducting graphene component of this material. (Illustration Greg Stewart / SLAC.)

By UV irradiation of graphene managed directly trace the processes of “throwing” of electrons between graphene and calcium – the way they interact with these materials inherent in the internal vibrations of the atomic structure and are paired, which allows these particles to flow without loss inside graphene-calcium sandwich .

A key problem in this case was to understand the role in the establishment of the superconducting material of each component of composite. And scientists believe that they were able to reliably find out the following: although calcium and interaction with them to help achieve the superconducting state, graphene also has its own superconducting potential.

“We are able to show for the first time exactly how electrons exist in the graphene layers, in fact achieve superconductivity – says Jonathan Sobota ( Jonathan Sobota ) from the Institute of Materials Science and Energy at Stanford University, one of the participants in the experiment. – We believe that we understand the mechanism of superconductivity in this [composite material]. “

Although it is, as you can see, it is only the “theoretical understanding of the mechanism”, the operation of which may lead us to a superconducting graphene, and on the specific applications to talk a bit too early, scientists still notice that UHF analog transistors, nanosensors and MEMS devices, and as elemental base of quantum computers could be used successfully as a superconductor with specific qualities, like graphene.

Graphene could be a superconductor