Why is it causing global scientists to go crazy about "burning furnaces and refining pills"?, Room Temperature Superconducting Team | LK | Global

Recently, a team of scientists announced that they have discovered the world's first room temperature superconducting material, LK-99. For a moment, the global scientific community was boiling.

What is room temperature superconductivity and has it really been achieved? What impact will it bring us? Perhaps a new "industrial revolution" is about to begin.

What is room temperature superconductivity, where material acquisition is comparable to alchemy?

Superconductivity refers to the phenomenon where the resistance of certain materials suddenly disappears and there is no resistance when current passes through. The currently discovered superconducting materials exhibit superconducting properties only in extremely special environments, such as high pressure, high temperature, or low temperature. Maintaining this environment alone would be very costly, which is why the room temperature and atmospheric pressure superconductivity of LK-99 has sparked heated discussions.

Screenshot of arXiv website paper.

The incident originated on July 22nd, when a research team from the Korean Quantum Energy Research Center announced through two papers and videos that a modified lead apatite crystal can exhibit superconductivity below 400K under atmospheric pressure conditions.

The above experiment began to be replicated globally for a while, as the synthesis of the material required a long time of heating, etc. This process was jokingly referred to by many netizens as "burning furnace to refine pills". Taking China as an example, based on incomplete statistics of public information, teams such as Beihang University, Qufu Normal University, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology conducted replication experiments.

The video uploaded by the team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology on Bilibili shows that the "superconducting material" is even smaller than a toothpick, comparable to a needle tip. The experimental results rely on microscopic observation, and whether it is the N-level or S-level of the magnet, the material exhibits repulsion. This video once became the highest ranked video on Bilibili's ranking.

Screenshot of Bilibili.

The above video introduces that postdoctoral researcher Wu Hao and doctoral student Yang Li from the School of Materials Science and Technology of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, under the guidance of Professor Chang Haixin, have successfully synthesized the LK-99 crystal that can be magnetically suspended for the first time. The suspension angle of the crystal is larger than that of the sample obtained by Sukbae Lee et al., and it is expected to achieve true non-contact superconducting magnetic levitation.

But what's interesting is that the results of refining superconducting materials seem to have a lot of randomness.

For example, the research team from Beihang University stated that the LK-99 material was successfully prepared and no magnetic levitation or zero resistance phenomena were observed. Sun Yue's team from Southeast University observed a decrease in 110K resistance in one of the six samples, but did not measure complete diamagnetism. The experimenter speculated that the superconducting component in the samples was very low.

Is it possible to achieve it, and what are the difficulties?

Is it possible to achieve room temperature superconductivity, and what are the difficulties? Why has it attracted countless scientists to compete and bow down.

On August 2nd, the Korean Superconducting Society announced the establishment of the LK-99 Verification Committee to verify the authenticity of the results. As of now, based on the data provided in two papers and published videos, the society has announced that LK-99 cannot be referred to as a room temperature superconductor.

Professor Xiao Chijie from the School of Physics at Peking University said in an interview with China News Network that room temperature and atmospheric pressure superconductivity is the holy grail in the field of physics and one of human dreams. "Before violating the basic principles of physics and being confirmed as false, we need everyone to explore with their dreams, and everything is possible." According to the introduction, Xiao Chijie's research field is magnetic confinement thermonuclear fusion.

Zhou Youyu, a senior researcher at Beijing Longxun Kuangteng Technology Co., Ltd., told China News Network that room temperature superconductivity remains a difficult mountain to climb in the short term. The recently popular Korean room temperature superconducting material LK-99 has not yet been tested for two major characteristics of superconductors simultaneously, namely zero resistance and complete diamagnetism, through repeated experiments.

Recently, the official account of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that it was really hard to judge, but it was not difficult to verify the authenticity. According to the Korean author, a batch of samples could be prepared in three days at the earliest.

As mentioned above, some of the publicly available replicated LK-99 materials have detected diamagnetism, but no phenomenon of zero resistance at room temperature and pressure has been detected.

Screenshot of the Korean team's paper presentation video.

Some media quoted Xu Qingjin, a researcher at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as saying that the public pays close attention to room temperature superconductivity, which shows everyone's enthusiasm for scientific topics, and this is a happy place. But some self media are too "headline oriented" and exaggerate, seriously misleading everyone. Room temperature superconductivity is very beautiful, but it is also difficult to achieve.

Once broken through, what applications will it bring?

Although the road to achieving room temperature superconductivity is difficult, what impact will it have on us once implemented?

Xiao Chijie stated that it is difficult to list all of them, but after the industrial application of atmospheric temperature superconductivity technology, it will greatly promote the engineering and economic feasibility of magnetic confinement thermonuclear fusion energy. The utilization of fusion energy will have a significant impact on human civilization, so the importance of atmospheric room temperature superconductivity cannot be overemphasized.

Feng Junlan, Chief Scientist of China Mobile, recently stated that if room temperature superconductivity is achieved, quantum computing will make a qualitative leap, further promoting the development of large models.

The industry generally believes that if room temperature superconductivity is achieved, it will bring qualitative changes to fields such as maglev trains, non-destructive power transmission, quantum computers, controlled nuclear fusion, and medical imaging.

For example, controlled nuclear fusion requires an extremely strong magnetic field to confine fusion in a small space, while superconducting magnets can generate a strong magnetic field, and room temperature superconductors further reduce energy consumption.

In addition, the complete diamagnetism of room temperature superconductivity reduces the need for refrigeration in maglev equipment, making it easier to achieve superconducting maglev trains. "After the popularization of maglev trains, commuting to work will become more efficient in the future," said a netizen.