Phys.org August 15, 2024 Copper oxide materials can be made superconducting by doping the parent compound with either electrons or holes. Hole-doped cuprates typically have higher transition temperatures and have been studied more extensively. An international team of researchers (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Yale University, UC Berkeley, Sweden) observed an unusual energy gap in electron-doped cuprate Nd2-xCexCuO4 high above the temperature of the superconducting transition. After considering all the known ordering tendencies in tandem with the phase diagram, they hypothesized that the normal-state gap in the underdoped n-type cuprates originated from Cooper pairing. According to the researchers the high temperature […]
Tag Archives: Copper
When copper becomes transparent: European XFEL creates exotic matter
Phys.org July 29, 2024 To understand its electronic structure and structure upon irradiation with strong laser pulses, an international team of researchers (Germany, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, USA – University of Washington) simultaneously created and characterized warm dense copper over a large irradiation intensity range. An absorption peak below the L edge appeared from transient depletion of the 3d band. The peak shifted to lower energy with increasing intensity, indicating the movement of the 3d band upon strong X-ray excitation. At higher intensities, substantial ionization and collisions led to the transition from reverse saturable absorption to saturable absorption of the […]
A more efficient, safer alternative to sourcing copper via bacteria
Phys.org April 24, 2021 The chemical synthesis of monoatomic metallic copper is unfavorable as it requires inert or reductive conditions and the use of toxic reagents. An international team of researchers (Brazil, USA – University of Houston, Japan) describes how a copper-resistant bacterium isolated from a copper mine in Brazil converts toxic copper ions to stable single-atom copper. They propose a biosynthetic mechanism for production of copper via proteomics analysis. This microbial conversion is carried out naturally under aerobic conditions eliminating toxic solvents. They demonstrated the abundant intracellular synthesis of single-atom zero-valent copper by the bacterium. The finding shows that […]