Spring 2024 Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics Symposium - Kevin Nuckolls

Kevin Nuckolls
2023-2026 Pappalardo Fellow in Physics
Experimental Condensed Matter Physics

“Customizable Unconventional Superconducting Materials”

Superconductivity is an extraordinary collective electronic phase of matter that supports the conduction of electricity in materials without energy loss or heat dissipation. Our understanding of this remarkable phenomenon is deeply rooted in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity, which impressively describes nearly all of the superconducting materials we know of today.

Because of this explanatory power, we often refer to this theory as the “conventional” theory of superconductivity. However, this theory is not universal, and there are a growing number of exceptions to this framework that have evaded a complete and quantitative microscopic description.

So-called “unconventional superconductors” have been discovered in a wide range of materials, and are important exceptions, in part because of their impressive robustness to their environment.

Unconventional superconductors are stable up to record high temperatures and magnetic fields, and are stable in the ultra-low electron density limit—all of which provide clear and quantitative violations of our conventional theory of superconductivity.

In this talk, I will introduce the major goals and challenges of superconductivity research today, which aim not only to uncover predictive theoretical descriptions for exotic superconducting phases, but also to design new materials capable of supporting the transformative technological impact expected of a room-temperature, ambient pressure superconductor.

Further, I will discuss recent efforts towards designing, synthesizing, and characterizing unconventional superconductivity in an emerging family of layered materials.

With these new materials, the close interplay of material synthesis efforts and advanced characterization techniques has begun to present new opportunities for understanding unconventional superconductivity through the careful comparison of material properties within this highly tunable material class.

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