Optics of Quantum Materials

当某些金属在低温下失去电阻时，就会发生超导。超导体被用于医院的核磁共振成像机器和需要高磁场的研究中。超导材料需要昂贵的冷却，长期目标是找到一种在室温下是超导的材料。这样的发现将给电力行业带来革命性的变化。室温超导体的超高磁场将降低聚变反应堆的尺寸和成本，有望提供无限的无污染电力供应，我们将期待超导取代电这个词的未来。迈向室温超导的最新一步是Mikahil Eremts发现了在钻石尖端之间压缩到200万大气压的液态硫化氢的超导电性，超导电性从-68摄氏度的创纪录温度开始，但仍然低于室温。我们与Eremts、理论家Jules Carbotte和Pascale Roy的同步加速器小组合作，利用光学光谱学来研究这种材料及其独特的超导性质。我们的第一个成果于2017年9月发表在《自然·物理》杂志上。Eremts在2013年发现了300万大气压下的金属氢，这是我们想要使用同步加速器研究的另一个潜在的高温超导体。在这个时间点上，我们是唯一一个开发了在超高压下研究超导体的技术的团队。我们计划在授予过程中将这种能力扩展到更高的压力，达到我们可以在金属氢中建立超导电性的程度。 最后，一个完全不同的项目是开发使用金属板上的孔图案的光学设备。它们被广泛应用于毫米波天文学，是暑期学生理想的项目。每年将有一名本科生接受该项目的培训。

Superconductivity happens when certain metals lose their electrical resistance at low temperatures. Superconductors are used in hospital MRI machines and in research where high magnetic fields are required. Superconducting materials require expensive cooling and a long term goal is to find a material that is superconducting at room temperature. Such a discovery would revolutionize the electrical power industry. The ultra-high magnetic fields of a room temperature superconductor would lower the size and cost of a fusion reactor promising a boundless supply of pollution-free electrical power and we will look forward to a future where the word electricity is replaced by superconductivity. A recent step towards room temperature superconductivity was the discovery by Mikahil Eremets of superconductivity of liquid hydrogen sulphide compressed between diamond tips to a pressure of 2 million atmospheres with superconductivity starting at a record breaking temperature of -68 degrees Celsius, but still short of room temperature. We formed a collaboration with Eremets, the theorist Jules Carbotte and the synchrotron group of Pascale Roy to use optical spectroscopy to study this material and its unique superconducting properties. Our first results were published in Nature Physics in September 2017. Metallic hydrogen under 3 million atmosphere pressure, discovered by Eremets in 2013 is another potential high temperature superconductor that we want to work on using the synchrotron. At this point in time we are the only group that has developed techniques to study superconductors at ultra high pressures. We plan to extend this capability to even higher pressures in the course of this grant to the point where we can establish superconductivity in metallic hydrogen. Finally, a completely different project is the development of optical devices using patterns of holes in a metal sheet. They are widely used in millimeter wave astronomy and form an ideal project for summer students. One undergraduate per year will be trained in this program.