New Insights into Superconducting Materials

An American-Swiss research team has used a new X-ray technique at Swiss Light Source (SLS) of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) to investigate the magnetic properties of atomically thin layers of a parent compound of a high-temperature superconductor. It turns out that the magnetic properties of such thin films differ by only a surprisingly small degree from those of macroscopically thick samples. In their experiment, the researchers investigated the material using X-ray light from the SLS and found out how the energy of the light changed as it passed through the sample. The “RIXS” technique that is available at PSI is the first of its kind that is sensitive enough to enable investigations on such thin films. At the present time, superconducting materials are already being studied by this technique. In the future, it could be used for studying the processes occurring in very thin superconductors and contribute to an understanding of the fascinating phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity. The results of the present work have recently appeared in the journal Nature Materials.

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