Strange state: Some electrons remain mobile while their
neighbors are locked down
Rice University physicists on the hunt for the origins of
high-temperature superconductivity have published new findings this week about
a material that becomes “schizophrenic” — simultaneously exhibiting the
characteristics of both a metallic conductor and an insulator.
In a theoretical analysis this week in Physical Review
Letters (PRL), Rice physicists Qimiao Si and Rong Yu offer an explanation for a
strange series of observations described earlier this year by researchers at
the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Menlo Park, Calif. In those
experiments, physicists used X-rays to probe the behavior of electrons in
superconducting materials made of potassium, iron and selenium.