Superinsulator
Encyclopedia
A superinsulator is a material that at low temperatures under certain conditions has an infinite resistance
and no current
will pass through it. The superinsulating state has many parallels to the superconducting state, and can be destroyed (in a sudden phase transition) by increased temperature, magnetic fields and voltage.
The superinsulating state was first observed in a titanium nitride
film in April 2008 by Russian
scientists in Valerii Vinokur and Tatyana Baturina working at Argonne National Laboratory
, USA. Currently it is not known if the superinsulation state they observed means the dielectric permittivity of the material approaches infinity, or whether the material just has zero conduction as would be found in a vacuum.
Other researchers have seen the same phenomenon in disordered indium oxide films, but have proposed a different explanation for their observations .
and superinsulation are caused by the pairing of conduction electron
s at low temperatures into Cooper pairs. In superconductors, all the pairs move in unison, allowing current without resistance. In superinsulators the Cooper pairs avoid each other, preventing current from flowing. A phase diagram showing parallels with superconductivity is here:
Electrical resistance
The electrical resistance of an electrical element is the opposition to the passage of an electric current through that element; the inverse quantity is electrical conductance, the ease at which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual parallels with the mechanical...
and no current
Electric current
Electric current is a flow of electric charge through a medium.This charge is typically carried by moving electrons in a conductor such as wire...
will pass through it. The superinsulating state has many parallels to the superconducting state, and can be destroyed (in a sudden phase transition) by increased temperature, magnetic fields and voltage.
The superinsulating state was first observed in a titanium nitride
Titanium nitride
Titanium nitride is an extremely hard ceramic material, often used as a coating on titanium alloys, steel, carbide, and aluminium components to improve the substrate's surface properties....
film in April 2008 by Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
scientists in Valerii Vinokur and Tatyana Baturina working at Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is the first science and engineering research national laboratory in the United States, receiving this designation on July 1, 1946. It is the largest national laboratory by size and scope in the Midwest...
, USA. Currently it is not known if the superinsulation state they observed means the dielectric permittivity of the material approaches infinity, or whether the material just has zero conduction as would be found in a vacuum.
Other researchers have seen the same phenomenon in disordered indium oxide films, but have proposed a different explanation for their observations .
Mechanism
Both superconductivitySuperconductivity
Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum...
and superinsulation are caused by the pairing of conduction electron
Electron
The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
s at low temperatures into Cooper pairs. In superconductors, all the pairs move in unison, allowing current without resistance. In superinsulators the Cooper pairs avoid each other, preventing current from flowing. A phase diagram showing parallels with superconductivity is here:
Future applications
Superinsulators could potentially be used to create batteries that do not lose charge when not in use. Combined with superconductors, superinsulators could be used to create electrical circuits with almost no energy lost as heat.Criticism
It has been suggested by several authors that the "superinsulator" may not be a fundamentally new state of solid, but is rather caused due to the non-equilibrium heating of the electrons with respect to the phonons at low temperatures. This notion gets support from the fact that the jump in the current-voltage characteristics, a hallmark of the superinsulating state is also observed in other systems, such as YxSi1-x, where no known superconducting correlations exist.External links
- Superinsulator and quantum synchronization. Nature April 2008
- Comment on "Superinsulator and Quantum Synchronization"
- Superinsulator, New State of Matter Observed
- Newly discovered 'superinsulators' promise to transform materials research, electronics design
- Newly Discovered Fundamental State Of Matter, A Superinsulator, Has Been Created
- Physicists discover the 'superinsulator'. Physicsworld
- Scientists Solve Mystery of Superinsulators. IEEE Spectrum March 2010