Researchers at the University of Rochester in upstate New York successfully created a material capable of superconductivity at room temperature, campus officials announced.
The material, known as nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride, showed superconductivity at 69 degrees Fahrenheit and at pressures of 145,000 pounds per square inch — lower than the internal pressures routinely used in chip manufacturing and other engineering techniques.
The temperature and pressure levels could enable practical applications for superconductive materials across a wide range of industries, from computing and medical imaging to transportation and energy. The data was collected at two national laboratories outside Rochester before an audience of scientists’earlier studies of superconductive materials were retracted.
Superconductive materials, researchers said, effectively eliminate electrical resistance and negate expelled magnetic fields — but developing them has confounded scientists for more than a century. Rochester engineers said that their latest discovery represents “the dawn of ambient superconductivity” and that advanced computing techniques could eventually identify more superconducting materials.
“We believe we are now at the modern superconducting era,” Rochester physicist and mechanical engineer Ranga Dias said in a university announcement.
Practical superconductivity, according to Rochester scientists, could enable a variety of improved or breakthrough technologies, including much more efficient power grids, faster digital logic and memory devices, and levitating, high-speed trains. It could even enable machines that could confine plasmas and enable nuclear fusion.
