Novel magnetic, superconducting material opens new possibilities in electronics

Researchers who sandwiched two nonmagnetic insulators together announced a startling result today: The layer where the two materials meet has both magnetic and superconducting regions - two properties that normally can’t co-exist. Using the device at right, called a nanoSQUID, scientists at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES), a joint institute of the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University? created images of both the magnetic and superconducting properties. The nanoSQUID is a billion times more sensitive than commercial magnetometers and can detect magnetic fields a million times smaller than that of the Earth.