Like astronomers tweaking images to gain a more detailed glimpse of distant stars, physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have found ways to sharpen images of the energy spectra in high-temperature superconductors — materials that carry electrical current effortlessly when cooled below a certain temperature.

When an electrical current passes through a wire it emanates heat – a principle that's found in toasters and incandescent light bulbs. Some materials, at low temperatures, violate this law and carry current without any heat loss. But this seemingly trivial property, superconductivity, is now at the forefront of our understanding of physics.

Physicists at Rutgers and Columbia universities have gained new insight into the origins of superconductivity – a property of metals where electrical resistance vanishes – by studying exotic chemical compounds that contain neptunium and plutonium.

How does a magnet that cannot transport electricity transform into a superconductor that is a perfect conductor of electricity?

Superconductivity has perplexed, astounded and inspired scientists ever since it was discovered in 1911. Now, in the latest of a century of surprises, researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University have discovered unusual properties in a novel superconducting material that point to an entirely new kind of superconductor.

Scientists at Brookhaven Lab have discovered a state of two-dimensional (2D) fluctuating superconductivity in a high-temperature superconductor with a particular arrangement of electrical charges known as "stripes."

An international research team has discovered that a magnetic field can interact with the electrons in a superconductor in ways never before observed.

A research group at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory led by physics professor Pengcheng Dai, along with collaborators at Boston College, has taken a step toward understanding a great physical mystery.

A team of international physicists that includes researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has found experimental evidence of a highly sought-after type of arrangement of atomic magnetic moments, or spins, in a series of materials.

An international collaboration at the Michigan State University National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) has demonstrated a new technique for studying particles traveling at one-third the speed of light. The result, which will be published in Physical Review Letters, opens up new doors to investigating rare isotopes.

New fundamental particles aren’t found only at Fermilab and at other particle accelerators. They also can be found hiding in plain pieces of ceramic, scientists at the University of Illinois report.

Like the surface motif of a bubble bath, the spatial distribution of a magnetic field penetrating a superconductor can exhibit an intricate, foam-like structure. Ruslan Prozorov at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has observed these mystifying, two-dimensional equilibrium patterns in lead samples when the material is in its superconducting state, below 7.2 Kelvin, or minus 446.71 degrees Fahrenheit.