Eugene Demler

An ordinary superconductor works only in nature's freezer — at temperatures below minus one hundred degrees. The carbon-ball material K₃C₆₀ is no exception: without cold, it resists current like a crowd in a narrow corridor. But physicists noticed something strange: if you shine a laser on it, it starts conducting without loss even in warmth.

Certain materials, near absolute zero, superconduct: electricity flows without loss. The critical temperature starts this. John Bardeen and colleagues explained that atomic vibrations glue electrons into Cooper pairs.

Imagine a ladder whose rungs are tiny magnets. If neighboring magnets point in opposite directions, the ladder is "calm." But if you make them all point the same way, the whole structure becomes magnetized and "stubborn." Scientists built such a ladder from germanium atoms — a semiconductor used to make transistors.