This award supports an integrated research, outreach, and educational effort to advance the fundamental understanding of superconducting materials. Superconductivity is a quantum state of matter whereby electrons move through a material without resistance, namely, without losing any energy to heat. Superconducting materials are of paramount importance to different technologies: from magnetic resonance imaging machines to accelerators for high-energy physics, and magnetic levitating trains. However, their usefulness is often restricted by the prohibitively low temperatures at which superconductivity usually emerges. Increasing this transition temperature and discovering new superconductors has been limited by the lack of consensus as to what causes superconductivity in some classes of materials. One of these classes is represented by copper oxides whose discovery in the 1980s had a profound influence on physics as they could superconduct at a higher temperature than any material known at the time.
This project will use advanced computational and theoretical methods to investigate nickel oxides - promising candidate materials for superconductivity based on the proximity of nickel to copper in the periodic table. The goal of the project is to discover a new family of nickel-based superconductors while providing insights into the origin of high-temperature superconductivity. The team will develop computational approaches suited for superconducting materials and perform simulations of electrons to establish the differences and similarities between the physics of nickel and copper oxides. The discovery of the first family of nickel oxide-based superconductors will open new venues and establish the relevant parameters that give rise to superconductivity. This is a necessary ingredient to enhance the temperatures at which superconductivity emerges and to provide routes to create novel superconducting materials.
The research activities are integrated with an educational and outreach program to bring superconductivity and computational modeling in physics to students and to the general public in metro Phoenix. The program has an emphasis on mentoring high-school students from underserved areas via an outreach day for high-school girls in majority-Latino neighborhoods, and through a series of computational summer workshops for students from low-income areas. The broader impact of these activities will be early exposure to research for young talented students who generally do not see science career paths represented in their communities. The PI will also develop demos for open house events to educate and engage the general public on superconducting materials. Finally, this award will contribute to forming tomorrow's scientific and technological workforce by recruiting and advising undergraduate and graduate students to participate in condensed matter physics and materials research.
This award supports an integrated research, outreach, and educational effort to advance the fundamental understanding of superconducting materials. More than a century after its discovery, superconductivity remains one of the most active areas of condensed matter physics research. The discovery of iron-based superconductors in 2006 reinvigorated the field after an intensive exploration of cuprates from the late 1980s. However, pinpointing the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity and determining why the characteristics of high-temperature superconducting materials are so special are fundamental questions yet to be answered. Among the multiple approaches to addressing these questions has been the search for cuprate analog materials. In this context, targeting nickelates is an obvious strategy since nickel and copper are next to each other in the periodic table.
This project will develop theoretical and computational approaches to investigate superconductivity in layered nickel oxide materials. The explicit goal of the proposed research is to discover and establish the theoretical foundations of the first family of nickelate superconductors while addressing their behavior in a microscopic way. The theory approach will run the gamut from fast density functional theory to computationally intensive quasiparticle-self consistent GW+dynamical mean-field theory calculations. With this methodology, the team will determine the complexity of the layered nickelate phase diagram, the relationship between competing phases therein and superconductivity, and ultimately provide new insights into the nature and origin of high temperature superconductivity. The systematic comparison with superconducting cuprates will lay the foundation of the relevant parameters that give rise to high-temperature superconductivity and establish routes to create novel superconducting materials.
Integrated with the research efforts, the PI will establish an educational and outreach program to bring superconductivity and computational modeling in physics to students and to the general public in metro Phoenix through i) a computational summer workshop for high school students from low-income areas, ii) an outreach day for high school girls in majority-Latino neighborhoods, and iii) open house events centered around superconductivity. These outreach and educational efforts will directly benefit the community Arizona State University serves by exposing a wide cross-section of people to science and by influencing younger generations that generally do not see science career paths represented in their communities. Finally, this award will contribute to forming tomorrow's scientific and technological workforce by recruiting undergraduate and graduate students to participate in condensed matter physics research.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
