Metamaterial superconductors

Nanophotonics

article

Igor I. Smolyaninov¹  Vera N. Smolyaninova³ 

[1] Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park;Saltenna LLC;Department of Physics Astronomy and Geosciences, Towson University

关键词: superconductivity;    electromagnetic metamaterials;    dielectric properties;    epsilon near-zero metamaterial;    hyperbolic metamaterial;   

DOI  :  10.1515/nanoph-2017-0115

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: De Gruyter

【 摘 要 】

Searching for natural materials exhibiting larger electron-electron interactions constitutes a traditional approach to high-temperature superconductivity research. Very recently, we pointed out that the newly developed field of electromagnetic metamaterials deals with the somewhat related task of dielectric response engineering on a sub-100-nm scale. Considerable enhancement of the electron-electron interaction may be expected in such metamaterial scenarios as in epsilon near-zero (ENZ) and hyperbolic metamaterials. In both cases, dielectric function may become small and negative in substantial portions of the relevant four-momentum space, leading to enhancement of the electron pairing interaction. This approach has been verified in experiments with aluminum-based metamaterials. Metamaterial superconductor with T c =3.9 K have been fabricated, which is three times that of pure aluminum ( T c =1.2 K), which opens up new possibilities to improve the T c of other simple superconductors considerably. Taking advantage of the demonstrated success of this approach, the critical temperature of hypothetical niobium, MgB 2 - and H 2 S-based metamaterial superconductors is evaluated. The MgB 2 -based metamaterial superconductors are projected to reach the liquid nitrogen temperature range. In the case of an H 2 S-based metamaterial, the projected T c appears to reach ~250 K.

【 授权许可】

CC BY