Andrea Cavalleri

New Capabilities

Led the study; directs the MPSD group in Hamburg

The intrinsic current limit of a superconductor — the point where Cooper pairs tear apart — has been known theoretically for decades but never measured directly. Vortex motion and self-heating always destroyed the supercurrent first. A team at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg has now bypassed both by firing picosecond electrical pulses, far too short for vortices to move.

Updated 2 hours ago