The research team, led by associate professor Mazhar Ali, has found a way to enable one-way superconductivity without magnetic fields, something that was thought to be impossible ever since its discovery in 1911 – until today.
The findings, published in Nature, make use of 2D quantum materials and pave the way towards superconducting computing, something that could make electronics hundreds of times faster, all with zero energy loss.
“If the 20th century was the century of semi-conductors, the 21st can become the century of the superconductor,” said Ali.
Since superconductivity's discovery, many scientists, including Nobel Prize winners, have puzzled over the challenge of making superconducting electrons go in just one direction.
In superconductors, a current goes through a wire without any resistance, which means blocking or inhibiting this current is almost impossible. In the 1970s, scientists at IBM tried out the idea of superconducting computing...