Unconventional lift-generating mechanisms in free-flying butterflies

Flying insects generate forces that are too large to be accounted for by conventional steady-state aerodynamics. To investigate these mechanisms of force generation, we trained red admiral butterflies, Vanessa atalanta, to fly freely to and from artificial flowers in a wind tunnel, and used high-resolution, smoke-wire flow visualizations to obtain qualitative, high-speed digital images of the air flow around their wings. The images show that free-flying butterflies use a variety of unconventional aerodynamic mechanisms to generate force: wake capture, two different types of leading-edge vortex, active and inactive upstrokes, in addition to the use of rotational mechanisms and the Weis-Fogh 'clap-and-fling' mechanism. Free-flying butterflies often used different aerodynamic mechanisms in successive strokes. There seems to be no one 'key' to insect flight, instead insects rely on a wide array of aerodynamic mechanisms to take off, manoeuvre, maintain steady flight, and for landing.     

Boosting superconductivity in organic-inorganic superlattices

Recently,great research efforts have been made to study the superconductivity in 2D systems,especially in 2D transitional metal dichalcogenide (TMD) materials [...     

长歌短哭总未宜--小论史湘云

史湘云是“金陵十二钗”中最爽朗真率、英气夺人的“异样女子”。她出身不幸,却乐观开朗;才情洋溢,却不矜不骄;出言爽利,却坦荡无私;喜爱男妆,颇有名士之风、英豪之气。然而,这一切都填不平命运给她预设的陷阱,难逃“万艳同悲”的结局。     

Unconventional critical behaviour in a quasi-two-dimensional organic conductor

Changing the interactions between particles in an ensemble--by varying the temperature or pressure, for example--can lead to phase transitions whose critical behaviour depends on the collective nature of the many-body system. Despite the diversity of ingredients, which include atoms, molecules, electrons and their spins, the collective behaviour can be grouped into several families (called 'universality classes') represented by canonical spin models. One kind of transition, the Mott transition, occurs when the repulsive Coulomb interaction between electrons is increased, causing wave-like electrons to behave as particles. In two dimensions, the attractive behaviour responsible for the superconductivity in high-transition temperature copper oxide and organic compounds appears near the Mott transition, but the universality class to which two-dimensional, repulsive electronic systems belongs remains unknown. Here we present an observation of the critical phenomena at the pressure-induced Mott transition in a quasi-two-dimensional organic conductor using conductance measurements as a probe. We find that the Mott transition in two dimensions is not consistent with known universality classes, as the observed collective behaviour has previously not been seen. This peculiarity must be involved in any emergent behaviour near the Mott transition in two dimensions.     

Volatile and non-volatile superconductivity in cuprate by ionic liquid gating opens novel roads for superconductivity research

Changing carrier density is one of the most remarkable but common aspects of unconventional superconductors.Both for understanding the mechanism of exotic super...     

Magnetic-field-induced superconductivity in a two-dimensional organic conductor

The application of a sufficiently strong magnetic field to a superconductor will, in general, destroy the superconducting state. Two mechanisms are responsible for this. The first is the Zeeman effect, which breaks apart the paired electrons if they are in a spin-singlet (but not a spin-triplet) state. The second is the so-called 'orbital' effect, whereby the vortices penetrate into the superconductors and the energy gain due to the formation of the paired electrons is lost. For the case of layered, two-dimensional superconductors, such as the high-Tc copper oxides, the orbital effect is reduced when the applied magnetic field is parallel to the conducting layers. Here we report resistance and magnetic-torque experiments on single crystals of the quasi-two-dimensional organic conductor lambda-(BETS)2FeCl4, where BETS is bis(ethylenedithio)tetraselenafulvalene. We find that for magnetic fields applied exactly parallel to the conducting layers of the crystals, superconductivity is induced for fields above 17 T at a temperature of 0.1 K. The resulting phase diagram indicates that the transition temperature increases with magnetic field, that is, the superconducting state is further stabilized with magnetic field.     

Quantum suppression of superconductivity in ultrathin nanowires

It is of fundamental importance to establish whether there is a limit to how thin a superconducting wire can be, while retaining its superconducting character--and if there is a limit, to determine what sets it. This issue may also be of practical importance in defining the limit to miniaturization of superconducting electronic circuits. At high temperatures, the resistance of linear superconductors is caused by excitations called thermally activated phase slips. Quantum tunnelling of phase slips is another possible source of resistance that is still being debated. It has been theoretically predicted that such quantum phase slips can destroy superconductivity in very narrow wires. Here we report resistance measurements on ultrathin (< or = 10 nm) nanowires produced by coating carbon nanotubes with a superconducting Mo-Ge alloy. We find that nanowires can be superconducting or insulating depending on the ratio of their normal-state resistance (R(N)) to the quantum resistance for Cooper pairs (Rq). If R(N) < Rq, quantum tunnelling of phase slips is prohibited by strong damping, and so the wires stay superconducting. In contrast, we observe an insulating state for R(N) > Rq, which we explain in terms of proliferation of quantum phase slips and a corresponding localization of Cooper pairs.     

Coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism in URhGe

The discovery of superconductivity at high pressure (albeit over a restricted range) in the ferromagnetic material UGe2 raised the possibility that bulk superconductivity might be found in other ferromagnets. The exact symmetry of the paired state and the dominant mechanism responsible for the pairing, however, remain unidentified. Meanwhile, the conjecture that superconductivity could occur more generally in ferromagnets has been fuelled by the recent observation of a low-temperature transition that suggests an onset of superconductivity in high-quality crystals of the itinerant-ferromagnet ZrZn2 (ref. 2), although the thermodynamic signature of this transition could not be detected. Here we show that the ferromagnet URhGe is superconducting at ambient pressure. In this case, we find the thermodynamic signature of the transition-its form is consistent with a superconducting pairing of a spin-triplet type, although further testing with cleaner samples is needed to confirm this. The combination of superconductivity and ferromagnetism may thus be more common and consequently more important than hitherto realized.     

离子液体调控超导研究

载流子在超导材料中扮演关键角色,其浓度调控对研究超导特性及相关量子器件至关重要.然而载流子浓度通常与其他自由度相互耦合,难以做到单一物理量变化,例如,化学掺杂同时会导致晶格等发生变化.最近迅速发展的离子液体调控技术,兼具了传统的化学掺杂和场效应晶体管优点——大范围、原位、可逆地调节载流子浓度.随着这项技术的发展,逐渐演变出两类调控思路:静电场效应和电化学调控.本文从这两个方面,回顾了离子液体调控在诱导新奇超导态和调控高温超导薄膜物性上的应用:静电场效应对绝缘或半导体体系十分有效,而对于本身载流子浓度较高的材料(如高温超导体等),电化学调控则发挥了重要作用.离子液体因其强大的原位调控能力和易于与其他手段结合的特点,正逐渐成为超导研究中不可或缺的手段,在构建精确相图、突破高温超导机理等方面发挥不可替代的作用.     

超导电性理论特征

超导材料的种类非常广泛,有单质金属、合金材料、有机化合物、非金属单质、金属与非金属掺杂材料、金属氧化物等.从超导电性特征又分为非常规超导材料和常规超导材料.因此从超导电性的起源研究超导电性理论的特征具有重要的意义,既是重要的理论研究,又对合成、制备各种新型超导材料具有指导意义.分析研究了超导电性的本征特点,分别从超导的基本物理图像、同位素效应、超导转变温度计算公式表示等方面给出了常规超导体和非常规超导体的全面描述.同时理论上计算了一种有机复合超导材料.     

Interplay of electron-lattice interactions and superconductivity in superconductivity in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta

Formation of electron pairs is essential to superconductivity. For conventional superconductors, tunnelling spectroscopy has established that pairing is mediated by bosonic modes (phonons); a peak in the second derivative of tunnel current d2I/dV2 corresponds to each phonon mode. For high-transition-temperature (high-T(c)) superconductivity, however, no boson mediating electron pairing has been identified. One explanation could be that electron pair formation and related electron-boson interactions are heterogeneous at the atomic scale and therefore challenging to characterize. However, with the latest advances in d2I/dV2 spectroscopy using scanning tunnelling microscopy, it has become possible to study bosonic modes directly at the atomic scale. Here we report d2I/dV2 imaging studies of the high-T(c) superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta. We find intense disorder of electron-boson interaction energies at the nanometre scale, along with the expected modulations in d2I/dV2 (refs 9, 10). Changing the density of holes has minimal effects on both the average mode energies and the modulations, indicating that the bosonic modes are unrelated to electronic or magnetic structure. Instead, the modes appear to be local lattice vibrations, as substitution of 18O for 16O throughout the material reduces the average mode energy by approximately 6 per cent--the expected effect of this isotope substitution on lattice vibration frequencies. Significantly, the mode energies are always spatially anticorrelated with the superconducting pairing-gap energies, suggesting an interplay between these lattice vibration modes and the superconductivity.     

What future for superconductivity ?

Progress in the theory of superconductors, particularly consideration of macrowave functions, could provide many opportunities for future development.     

Ferromagnetic tip induced unconventional superconductivity in Weyl semimetal

The metallic tip-induced superconductivity in normal Weyl semimetal offers a promising platform to study topological superconductivity,which is currently a rese...     

Gate-induced superconductivity in a solution-processed organic polymer film

The electrical and optical properties of conjugated polymers have received considerable attention in the context of potentially low-cost replacements for conventional metals and inorganic semiconductors. Charge transport in these organic materials has been characterized in both the doped-metallic and the semiconducting state, but superconductivity has not hitherto been observed in these polymers. Here we report a distinct metal-insulator transition and metallic levels of conductivity in a polymer field-effect transistor. The active material is solution-cast regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene), which forms relatively well ordered films owing to self-organization, and which yields a high charge carrier mobility (0.05-0.1 cm2 V(-1) s(-1)) at room temperature. At temperatures below approximately 2.35 K with sheet carrier densities exceeding 2.5 x 10(14) cm(-2), the polythiophene film becomes superconducting. The appearance of superconductivity seems to be closely related to the self-assembly properties of the polymer, as the introduction of additional disorder is found to suppress superconductivity. Our findings therefore demonstrate the feasibility of tuning the electrical properties of conjugated polymers over the largest range possible-from insulating to superconducting.     

铜氧化物的晶体结构参量与超导电性

以ｄＡ（ＣｕＯ２面上Ｃｕ（Ｐ）和项角氧Ｏ（Ａ）键长）对Ｖｄ［沿Ｃｕ（Ｐ）－Ｏ（Ａ）键和沿Ｃｕ（Ｐ）－Ｏ（Ｐ）键方向一个空穴的平均Ｍａｄｅｌｕｎｇ位势差］做图，发现所有铜氧化物超导体的转变温度和结构参量存在一确定的变化规律，不同超导系统被明显地分离开来，Ｔｃ既随ｄＡ也随Ｖｄ的增大而增大．本文从晶体结构的角度分析了产生该现象的原因．     

一种非常规矩形薄板弯曲元

提出一种与非常规三角形薄板弯曲元（ＴＲＵＮＣ）元相配的非常规矩形薄板弯曲元．这种新单元虽然采用与常规ＡＣＭ元相同的位移模式，但其精度一般都比后者高，而且比ＡＣＭ元的结构更简单，计算量更少，编程更容易     

论李白形象的非凡化

李白的一些生平事迹在他生前身后被非凡化了,这是一个很值得注意的文化现象。“长庚入梦”的神话化、“醉使力士”的英雄化以及“捉月骑鲸”的传说化这三个非凡化了的形象是人们向往“非凡”的心理的真实体现。     

Enhancement of superconductivity in organic-inorganic hybrid topological materials

Inducing or enhancing superconductivity in topological materials is an important route toward topological superconductivity.Reducing the thickness of transition...