Condensed matter physics Content

A New Road Map to Room Temperature Superconductors

Andy Fell — March 16, 2026 - 10:44am

Superconductors play a critical role in the modern-day scientific enterprise, from the magnets used in the CERN Large Hadron Collider to those in medical MRI machines. But these superconductors require very low temperatures to work. The discovery of room-temperature superconductors would open a huge range of applications and new technologies.

Physicist Receives $1.25 Million Grant to Investigate Superconductivity

Andy Fell — August 22, 2024 - 2:09pm

51�ԹϺ�� Davis physicist Inna Vishik is among the third annual cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Vishik, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, joins 18 other researchers nationwide who will each receive a five-year, $1.25 million grant to pursue new research goals and explore uncharted, innovative ideas.

Superconductivity: Hype versus Reality

Andy Fell — May 24, 2024 - 10:54am

In the summer of 2023, videos of a small chunk of material hovering over a magnet swept across the internet with the claim that a team of researchers had discovered a substance, LK-99, that is an electrical superconductor at room temperature.

Superconductors can conduct electricity with zero resistance, opening up whole fields of technology from levitating trains to ultra-efficient electrical grids. But so far, superconductivity has only been discovered at extremely low temperatures.

Physicists Expand Equation of State for Fermi-Hubbard Model

Andy Fell — March 15, 2024 - 2:42pm

When studying complex materials, condensed matter physicists often harness the Fermi-Hubbard model to explore a material’s electric, magnetic and superconductive properties. But the model isn’t without limitations. Historically, its theoretical and experimental applications have been limited to atoms with electrons that exist in two possible states.