Probing the Superfluid Stiffness of Superconducting Arsenides

超导性于1911年被发现，直到20世纪60年代才开始在应用中发挥作用。含铜化合物的高温超导性是在20世纪80年代中期发现的，并提出了利用超导性的更有用的器件的前景。2008年初，又一个突破性的发现被实现了：发现了含有铁的非常新的材料（这是一个惊喜，因为磁性铁以前被认为是你不希望包含在超导体中的那种原子！）由于这种效应的起源尚不清楚，这些都为研究提供了巨大而紧迫的刺激。利用合成化学的结合（这种方法导致了牛津大学在过去几个月里发现了新的超导体），高分辨率结构测量（使用中子和X射线）和超流体刚度探针（使用μ子），我们设计了一种策略来提供关于这些新化合物的独特信息，我们相信这对理解这个迷人的新材料家族的机制至关重要。

Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 and started to become useful in applications only in the 1960's. High-temperature superconductivity in copper-containing compounds was discovered in the mid-1980s and raised the prospect of more useful devices utilising superconductivity. Early in 2008, another breakthrough was achieved: very new materials were discovered containing iron (a surprise since magnetic iron was previously thought to be exactly the sort of atom you would not wish to include in a superconductor!) and these have provided an enormous and urgent stimulus to research since the origin of this effect is unknown. Using a combination of synthetic chemistry (an approach which has led to new superconductors being discovered in Oxford in the last few months), high-resolution structural measurements (using neutrons and x-rays) and probes of superfluid stiffness (using muons) we have devised a strategy to provide unique information about these new compounds which we believe will be critical to understanding the mechanism in this fascinating new family of materials.