New breakthrough in superconducting electronics revealed

Cutting-edge medical innovations could be facilitated by the creation of a new way of controlling the transport of electrical currents through high-temperature superconductors.

Pioneered by a team at the University of California, San Diego, the technique allows electronics to be constructed from ceramic materials that become superconducting at temperatures that can be easily achieved in the laboratory with liquid nitrogen.

Electrical transport through these materials has been successfully controlled by building a device within the superconducting material called a Josephson junction, which functions similarly to a transistor.

It is thought that through this method, it will be possible to create highly sensitive magnetometers for biomagnetic measurements of the human body.

The team is now collaborating with medical researchers to apply their work to the development of devices that can non-invasively measure the tiny magnetic fields generated within the brain, in order to study brain disorders such as autism and epilepsy in children.

Robert Dynes, a professor of physics and former chancellor of the University of California, San Diego, said: "We believe this new approach will have a significant and far-reaching impact in medicine, physics, materials science and satellite communications."