In this rendering, never-before-seen magnetic excitations ripple through a high-temperature superconductor, revealed for the first time by the Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering technique. By measuring the precise energy change of beams of incident x-rays (blue arrow) as they struck these quantum ripples and bounced off (red arrow), scientists discovered excitations present throughout the entire LSCO phase diagram. Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) is an x-ray spectroscopy technique used to investigate the electronic structure of molecules and materials. Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic fields occurring in certain materials when cooled below a characteristic critical temperature.
Crédito:
Album / Science Source / Brookhaven National Laboratory