Researchers have uncovered and explained an unusual form of superconductivity that only appears under extremely strong magnetic fields. The work, led in part by Rice University physicist Andriy Nevidomskyy, was published in Science and describes how uranium ditelluride (UTe2) forms a distinctive superconducting halo when exposed to intense magnetic conditions.
Under normal circumstances, magnetic fields disrupt superconductors. Even relatively modest fields tend to weaken superconductivity, while stronger ones usually eliminate it entirely once a critical limit is reached. UTe2 breaks this rule. In 2019, scientists discovered that it can remain superconducting in magnetic fields hundreds of times stronger than what typical materials can withstand.
"When I first saw the experimental data, I was stunned," said Nevidomskyy, a member of the Rice Advanced Materials Institute and the Rice Center for Quantum Materials. "The superconductivity was first suppressed by the magnetic field as expected but then reemerged in higher fields and only for what appeared to be a narrow field direction. There was no immediate explanation for this puzzling behavior."
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