Brookhaven Lab researchers captured the distribution of
multiple orbital electrons to help explain the emergence of superconductivity
in iron-based materials
Armed with just the right atomic arrangements,
superconductors allow electricity to flow without loss and radically enhance
energy generation, delivery, and storage. Scientists tweak these superconductor
recipes by swapping out elements or manipulating the valence electrons in an
atom's outermost orbital shell to strike the perfect conductive balance. Most
high-temperature superconductors contain atoms with only one orbital impacting
performance—but what about mixing those elements with more complex
configurations?