We were the first to publish the basic superconducting and normal state transport and thermodynamic properties of an exciting new superconducting material.  Magnesium diboride is an extremely interesting new superconducting material because it has the highest transition temperature of any intermetallic metal at 40 K, and because it will perform well in practical devices on closed-cycle refrigerators.  We were the first to demonstrate that supercurrent coupling between grains was extremely strong and thus well suited to magnet conductors.  This is to be contrasted with the cuprate superconductors with higher transition temperatures that require a very high degree of grain alignment to get high transport supercurrents.

  Does it describe a new discovery or a new methodology that's useful to others?

Yes, the paper describes a new discovery.

  Could you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?

Measurements of the superconducting properties of magnesium diboride opened a whole field of fundamental research.  It is the first superconductor with a crystal symmetry that leads to two distinct groups of electrons, a two-dimensional band of electrons that cruise around in the plane of hexagonal sheet of boron atoms, and a three-dimensional band of electrons which move equally in all three directions in the lattice.  It is fundamentally a new arena to find the superconducting phenomenon.   In applied research, magnesium diboride is a very low density conductor material well-suited to the development of light weight superconducting generators and motors that operate on a closed-cycle refrigerator.

  How did you become involved in this research?

Paul Canfield, of our laboratory, heard that Professor Jun Akimitsu of Aoyama-Gakuin University in Tokyo had reported the discovery of superconductivity in magnesium diboride at 40 K at a conference in Japan.  Paul immediately asked John Clem, the Editor of High Tc Update and a colleague, to make some discreet inquiries and in a couple of days we were off and running.  All of us have been involved in this field of research for many years.

Read an interview with Dr. Paul C. Canfield discussing the special topic of Magnesium Diboride Superconductors in ESI Special Topics.