Scientists make ultrathin superconducting films

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have developed ultrathin films that when sandwiched together form a superconductor, an advance that could lead to a new class of fast, power-saving electronics.

The films can be used at relatively high temperatures for superconductors, making them easier to handle and produce, they said on Wednesday.

"What we have done is we have put together two materials, neither of which is a superconductor, and we found their interface -- where they touch -- is superconducting," said physicist Ivan Bozovic of the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, in a telephone interview.

"This superconducting layer is extremely thin. It is thinner than 1 nanometer, which is 1 billionth of a meter," added Bozovic, whose findings appear in the journal Nature.

"It opens vistas for further progress, including using these techniques to significantly enhance superconducting properties in other known or new superconductors."

Like their name implies, superconductors are useful because they are extremely efficient at conducting electricity.

If cooled to the material's critical operating temperature, they have no resistance to the flow of electrical current, unlike ordinary electrical wires, which can eventually overheat.

The superconductors used in a magnetic resonance imaging or MRI machine, for example, must be cooled with liquid helium to keep them at 4 on the Kelvin scale, or near absolute zero minus 452.47 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 269.15 degrees Celsius).