Kagome materials, known for their star-shaped structure, have been a subject of research for about fifteen years, with metallic compounds featuring this structure being synthesized in the lab since 2018. These materials have unique electronic, magnetic, and superconducting properties, making them promising for future quantum technologies. Professor Ronny Thomale has provided key insights into this class of materials through his theoretical predictions. Recent findings suggest that Kagome metals could lead to novel electronic components, such as superconducting diodes.
In a recent preprint published online, Professor Thomale’s team proposed a unique type of superconductivity in Kagome metals, where Cooper pairs distribute in a wave-like fashion within the sublattices. This theory has now been confirmed for the first time in an international experiment, overturning previous assumptions about the distribution of Cooper pairs in Kagome metals. Cooper pairs are essential for superconductivity and can create a quantum state that allows for resistance-free movement through a Kagome superconductor.
The discovery of the Kagome superconductor came after initial research focused on the quantum effects of individual electrons in materials like potassium vanadium antimony. At ultra-low temperatures, electrons in Kagome metals reorganize and distribute in waves, leading to resistance-free superconductivity. The researchers are still exploring the potential of global physics research in Kagome materials, which is considered to be in its early stages.
A key contribution to the theoretical work on Kagome metals came from doctoral student Hendrik Hohmann and his colleague Matteo Dürrnagel. They explained that electrons in Kagome metals join together in pairs at extremely low temperatures, forming a quantum fluid that spreads in waves through the material. This wave-like distribution is transmitted from electrons to Cooper pairs, leading to sublattice-modulated superconductivity, a phenomenon with significant potential for future applications.
The experiment that directly detected wave-like Cooper pair distribution within a Kagome metal was developed by Jia-Xin Yin at the Southern University of Science and Technology. The scanning tunneling microscope used in the experiment was equipped with a superconducting tip based on the Nobel Prize-winning Josephson effect. This breakthrough in directly observing Cooper pairs at the atomic level is a significant step towards the development of energy-efficient quantum devices and novel superconducting components on a macroscopic scale.
While intensive research is still ongoing in the field of superconducting electronic components, the discovery of Kagome superconductors with spatial modulation of Cooper pairs offers exciting possibilities for superconducting electronics and loss-free circuits. The potential for Kagome metals to act as diodes themselves opens up new avenues for the development of superconducting technologies that could revolutionize the field of quantum physics and quantum computing.