An ordinary kitchen knife made of niobium would suddenly start conducting electricity with zero loss at −258 °C. That's how superconductivity works, and you can "switch it on" right at the metal's surface by blasting it with a laser in a nitrogen atmosphere.
In the experiment, a niobium plate was placed in a chamber with nitrogen at pressures up to 2.5 atmospheres and hit with short laser pulses. The laser melted the top layer of metal, nitrogen seeped into the melt, and upon solidification, a film of niobium nitride, a compound of niobium and nitrogen, formed. When the laser was powerful and nitrogen was abundant, the surface layer was dominated by a nitrogen-rich phase. This material transitioned to a superconducting state at 15 kelvins (about −258 °C)—noticeably warmer than pure niobium.
By adjusting nitrogen pressure and laser energy, you can produce either a hard, wear-resistant coating or a superconducting layer. This paves the way for making components with tailored properties: tough on the outside and losslessly conducting on the inside.
Pure niobium becomes superconducting at 9.2 kelvins, while the film produced in the experiment does so at 15 kelvins. The difference is just a few degrees, but for technology, it's a step toward less extreme cooling.
In Arthur C. Clarke's novel "The Fountains of Paradise," a space elevator made of super-strong material is described. Laser treatment of niobium, which hardens the surface, resembles the technology for creating such coatings.