Superconductivity is an electronic state of matter in which materials are able to conduct electricity with no electrical resistance -- with 100% efficiency -- below a transition temperature. For this amazing capability, they've found their way into the high current carrying wires of MRI scanners, fusion reactors and elements of national infrastructure. They are also fundamental to leading quantum computors and ultra-precise scientific instrumentation. That they typically only superconduct at extremely low temperatures -- -250 degrees -- burdens them with a steep practical and financial cost.

High temperature superconductivity -- superconductivity above 77 K -- has puzzled physicists for decades. Despite widespread adoption, the mechanism by which they are able to superconduct still eludes us and hinders searches for more performant materials. The 'holy grail' of the field is a material that hosts superconductivity at room-temperature.

Complicating matters, the materials that exhibit superconductivity at elevated (yet still practically low) temperatures tend to also host a plethora of other complex electronic phenemena. These include novel magnetic phases, charge density waves, nematicity and 'strange' metallicity. How each interacts with each other and which, if any, is promoting superconductivity is therefore difficult to disentange.

My Research

I've principally focused on the study of cuprates, a copper-based family of high-temperature superconductors that host superconductivity at the highest temperatures of any known materials at ambient pressure. Their parent state is an anti-ferromagnetic Mott insulator. This is rapidly suppressed with the introduction of additional holes via changes to their chemical composition (typically the addition of oxygen) and superconductivity emerges and grows in strength. With large compositional changes, superconductivity is eventually destroyed and a conventional metallic state remains.