Physicists discovered new state of matter

Unexpected behavior observed in superconductors, is associated with the emergence of the latter nematic state.

American and German physicists have discovered a potentially new state in a strong magnetic field of unconventional superconducting material. A study published in the journal Nature, and briefly about it, reports the Los Alamos national laboratory (USA).

In superconducting heavy-fermion CeRhIn5, placed in a strong magnetic field (with induction 50 Tesla), was observed in a nematic state, in which electrons are arranged so that reduce the symmetry of the initial crystal. Unconventional superconductivity appeared near the boundary between the magnetically ordered and magnitouporyadochennykh phases.

Experts believe that the irregular behavior observed in superconductors with heavy fermions, due to the emergence of the latter nematic state, which is characteristic for liquid crystals.

The source of pulsed magnetic field in which physicists observed new state of matter was in the US, for a specialist from Germany has prepared a focused ion beam.

Superconductors with heavy fermions represent compounds of rare earth metals and actinides with unstable 4f – or 5f-shell. Due to recent circumstances in such systems is anomalous pairing of electrons, that eventually reduces, compared to the classical superconductors, the symmetry properties of the material.

Superconductivity is widely used, particularly in MRI and particle accelerators, and radio frequency and microwave filters.

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