Science / Medicine : Better Superconductors
Researchers increased a hundredfold the amount of electricity that could be carried by crystals of superconducting material, boosting hopes for making the materials practical, scientists say.
The work indicates a solution is possible for one obstacle to making high-temperature superconductors carry useful amounts of current, said researcher Robert B. van Dover of AT&T; Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., where the research was done in conjunction with Swedish scientists.
Superconductors are materials that carry electricity without resistance. All those discovered so far must be chilled to work.
In recent years, scientists have created high-temperature superconductors, so named because they require less chilling than previously known materials. They want to use these new materials in such applications as high-power magnets, high-speed trains and devices for storing electrical power.
The researchers bombarded a crystal of superconducting material with neutrons, tiny particles that make up parts of atoms. The crystal could then carry about 100 times the current that untreated crystals could without losing superconductivity, they found.
