Friday, August 31, 2007

Interface Between 2 Insulators Becomes Superconducting

As Alice in Wonderland says "things are becoming curioser and curioser".

First there was a report that the 2D interface between 2 insulators can become metallic[1]. Now a new report in Nature has indicated that such interface can in fact become superconducting, albeit at 200 mK[2]. Fantastic!

This interface is a 2D thin region (~10 nm) and evokes exotic transport mechanism, I would assume. There's still considerable work in coming up the theoretical explanation for this phenomenon. So there's plenty of work left to be done.

Zz.

[1] A Ohtomo, H.Y. Hwaing, Nature v.427, p.423 (2004).
[2] N. Reyren et al., Science v.317, p.1196 (2007).

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