The record for high-temperature superconductivity has been smashed again

[sl8]

From https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612559/the-record-for-high-temperature-superconductivity-has-been-smashed-again/

The record for high-temperature superconductivity has been smashed again

Chemists found a material that can display superconducting behavior at a temperature warmer than it currently is at the North Pole. The work brings room-temperature superconductivity tantalizingly close.

by Emerging Technology from the arXiv December 10, 2018

Superconductivity is the weird phenomenon of zero electrical resistance that occurs when some materials are cooled below a critical temperature. The best superconductors have to be cooled with liquid helium or nitrogen to get cold enough (often as low as -250 °C or -480 F) to work. The holy grail for researchers is the idea that a material could be made to superconduct at around 0 °C — so-called room temperature superconductivity. If such a thing was ever discovered it would unleash a wide range of new technologies, including super-fast computers and data transfer.

The history of superconductivity is littered with dubious claims of high-temperature activity that later turn out to be impossible to reproduce. Indeed, physicists have a name for this: USOs, or unidentified superconducting objects.

So new claims of high-temperature superconductivity have to be treated with caution. Having said that, the news today that the record for high-temperature superconductivity has been smashed is worth looking at in more detail.

...

More at link.

[RainCaster]

1. Link?

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. The sample has to be under huge pressure - 170 GPa - half the pressure at the center of the Earth

That's a pretty big 'caveat'.