Alkali Doped Iron Selenide Superconductors
Superconductivity allows electrical current transmission with no resistance or loss of signal. Traditionally, this near-magical state could only be attained at extremely low temperatures (as in the photo above, using liquid nitrogen), permitting only limited applications, but researchers have been coaxing the temperature of superconductivity steadily upward. Over the last several years, iron-arsenic compounds have been replaced by iron-selenium devices, generating a lot of buzz in the physics community. (Image credit: Flickr/Camilla Hoel)↧