Andrew Cote (@Andercot)
nitter.net
National Lab (LBNL) results support LK-99 as a room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor. Simulations published 1 hour ago on arxiv support LK-99 as the holy grail of modern material science and applied physics. (https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.16892) Here's the plain-english explanation: - The simulations modeled what the original Korean authors proposed was happening to their material - where copper atoms were percolating into a crystal structure and replacing lead atoms, causing the crystal to strain slightly and contract by 0.5%. This unique structure was proposed to allow this amazing property. - @sineatrix from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab simulated this using heavy-duty compute power from the Department of Energy, and looked to see what would happen to the 'electronic structure' of this material, meaning, what are the available conduction pathways in the material. - It turns out that there are conduction pathways for electrons that are in just the right conditions and places that would enable them to 'superconduct'. More specifically, they were close to the 'Fermi Surface' which is like the sea-level of electrical energy, as in '0 ft above sea-level.' It's believed currently that the more conduction pathways close to the Fermi surface, the higher the temperature you can superconduct at (An analogy might be how its easier for planes to fly close to the surface of the ocean due to the 'ground effect' that gives them more lift.) This plot in particular shows the 'bands', or electron pathways, crossing above and below the Fermi surface. - Lastly, these interesting conduction pathways only form when the copper atom percolates into the less likely location in the crystal lattice, or the 'higher energy' binding site. This means the material would be difficult to synthesize since only a small fraction of crystal gets its copper in just the right location. This is insanely bullish for humanity.
  • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    So, I’m surprised we went from YBCO to strained lattice, even though I actually hoped we would look closer at strained lattice, I just assumed it was far off, you need a much better model, our ReBCO model is fairly weak, trying to jump to strained lattice seems like it would be much harder.

    If we found this, we almost certainly found it through pure luck, we’re 30 years from this kindf of material science, we can barely do single-crystal stuff in bulk, this is theoretically more complex if we hadn’t gotten crazy lucky.

    But while I’m skeptical, and want to wait, I’m not willing to turn away a possible golden ticket just because I didn’t expect it in my wonkabar.

    • Dr. Dabbles@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I’ve seen 40 years of these kinds of claims come and go. If we actually make a massive breakthrough like this, the lab that makes the discovery is going to be incredibly detailed and meticulous, documenting their exact processes, theories, and efforts to reproduce the material(s) from scratch. It’s not going to be someone publishing notes with major variances and holes in the details.

      I guess what I’m saying is when you see enough perpetual machines published in the news, you start to realize that if someone actually had one the first thing they’d do is make another one to confirm, and then plan which island they’re going to buy with their new found riches. And that’s to say nothing of whether it’s commercially viable on a cost or production speed basis. LOTS of advancements die on those vines. Just look at the semiconductor research industry.