That we are able to make quantitative predictions with such a good agreement with the experiments is exciting and means that computation can be confidently used to accelerate the discovery of high temperature superconductors.
— Chris Pickard
The quantum behaviour of hydrogen affects the structural properties of hydrogen-rich compounds, which are possible candidates for the elusive room temperature superconductor, according to new research co-authored at the University of Cambridge.
New theoretical results, published online in the journal Nature, suggest that the quantum nature of hydrogen – meaning that it can behave like a particle or a wave – strongly affects the recently discovered hydrogen sulphur superconductor, a compound that when subjected to extremely high pressure, is the highest-temperature superconductor yet identified. This new step towards understanding the underlying physics of high temperature superconductivity may aid in the search for a room temperature superconductor, which could be used for applications such as levitating trains, lossless electrical grids and next-generation supercomputers.
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Image: Structure with symmetric hydrogen bonds induced by the quantum behavior of the protons, represented by the fluctuating blue spheroids
Credit: UPV/EHU
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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