After 20 years of trying, scientists succeed in doping a 1D chain of cuprates

After 20 years of trying, scientists succeed in doping a 1D chain of cuprates

3 years ago
Anonymous $drS9DEX_Sj

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210909162237.htm

Researchers know these quantum materials get their abilities from electrons that join forces to form a sort of electron soup. But modeling this process in all its complexity would take far more time and computing power than anyone can imagine having today. So for understanding one key class of unconventional superconductors -- copper oxides, or cuprates -- researchers created, for simplicity, a theoretical model in which the material exists in just one dimension, as a string of atoms. They made these one-dimensional cuprates in the lab and found that their behavior agreed with the theory pretty well.

Unfortunately, these 1D atomic chains lacked one thing: They could not be doped, a process where some atoms are replaced by others to change the number of electrons that are free to move around. Doping is one of several factors scientists can adjust to tweak the behavior of materials like these, and it's a critical part of getting them to superconduct.