5 ms·

Can anyone conduct a proper measurement of resistivity versus temperature and determine whether it's a superconductor or not?

• adrian_b 3y ago
  In another thread such a measurement has been discussed. Unfortunately such measurements are not enough for definitive conclusions, because all that they can show is that below some temperature the resistance becomes smaller than the error of the measuring equipment. Moreover, because the samples obtained so far are extremely inhomogeneous, they do not show a definite transition temperature, which would have made superconductivity much more plausible. In any case, the results obtained so far are enough for showing that it is worthwhile to invest time and money for developing a method of producing samples that are larger and more pure, because whatever they are, they must have unusual properties. The best would be to develop a method for making monocrystals, because this material has an asymmetric crystal structure, which might have very anisotropic properties. The most interesting properties of semiconductors could not be discovered during the first century after their discovery by Faraday, because they were not available as pure monocrystals. Only after the methods for growing pure crystals have been developed during WW2 (for radar diodes), it became possible to measure the intrinsic properties of the semiconductors and to design new devices using them, and then the semiconductor industry has grown exponentially. With this kind of non-metallic superconductor, the problems may be similar.