Ultrafast laser to attack the mysteries of high-temperature superconductivity

Superconductivity promises huge energy savings. Although they play important roles in science, industry, and medicine, conventional superconductors must be maintained at temperatures a few degrees above absolute zero, which is tricky and expensive. Now a team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley has used a new and uniquely powerful tool to attack some of the biggest obstacles to understanding the electronic states of high-temperature superconductors. The team reports their research using the ultrafast laser ARPES (ultrafast angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy). The laser provides a way to measure the energy and momentum of the individual electron constituents of Cooper, which provides insight into the transition to high-temperature superconductivity.