Trilayer graphene is a promising platform for the superconducting diode effect. Credit: Mathias Scheurer |
Superconductors are the key to lossless current flow. However, the realization of superconducting diodes has only recently become an important topic of fundamental research. An international research team involving the theoretical physicist Mathias Scheurer has now succeeded in reaching a milestone: the realization of a superconducting diode effect without an external magnetic field. They report on this in Nature Physics.
One speaks of a superconducting diode effect when a material behaves like a superconductor in one direction of current flow and like a resistor in the other. In contrast to a conventional diode, such a superconducting diode exhibits a completely vanishing resistance and thus no losses in the forward direction. This could form the basis for future lossless quantum electronics. Physicists first succeeded in creating the diode effect about two years ago, but with some fundamental limitations. "At that time, the effect was very weak and it was generated by an external magnetic field, which is very disadvantageous in potential technological applications," explains Mathias Scheurer from the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Innsbruck. The new experiments carried out by experimental physicists at the renowned U.S. Brown University, described in the current issue of Nature Physics, does not require an external magnetic field.