URL: https://v1.desy.de/site_www-desy/content/petra4/research_topics/new_technologies/index_eng.html
Breadcrumb Navigation
Innovative technologies for the digital world of tomorrow
New findings at PETRA IV can be used to specifically tailor new materials - for chips and ultrafast processors, for example. An experimental breakthrough is expected in research on high-temperature superconductors: The ultra-sharp X-ray beam makes the local electronic structure of the materials visible on the nanoscale for the first time.
Data storage of the future
Quantum materials for the digital revolution
Digitization is leading to a gigantic demand for devices and networks. At the same time, previous miniaturization concepts in information technology are reaching their limits. Innovative approaches to components and architectural concepts must be found and new physical effects exploited in order to increase computing power, data storage densities and data transmission rates while significantly reducing the demand for electrical power. An important objective of PETRA IV is to develop suitable materials with new functionalities.
»Innovative analysis methods at PETRA IV can break new ground in spintronics to process 'big data' more efficiently.«
From lossless power supply to quantum computers: superconductivity at room temperature
Researchers expect an epochal change, for example, from materials that conduct electricity at room temperature without loss. Such extreme high-temperature superconductors would mean a technological revolution: Potential applications range from lossless current transport for sustainable energy supply to highly sensitive sensors, extremely fast switches for data processing or completely new possibilities for information processing in quantum computers. Superconductors are materials that conduct electrons without any resistance. This is made possible by special electron states in the crystal lattice of these materials.
The problem: With conventional superconductors, this lossless conduction is only possible at temperatures just above absolute zero. They have to be cooled with liquid helium to temperatures well below -200 degrees Celsius to demonstrate their superconducting functionality. This involves a great deal of effort and high costs. Research groups around the world are therefore looking for materials that already become superconducting at room temperature.
These include, for example, special copper- or iron-containing compounds. The current thermal record for superconducting materials was set by an international research group in 2019 for metallic lanthanum hydride at an astonishing -23 degrees Celsius - a record, but still not suitable for everyday use. To achieve this, the researchers had to artificially generate a pressure almost 200 million times higher than the air pressure surrounding us.
Customize functional materials
Despite intensive research, it has so far been mainly by chance when experts have come across new high-temperature superconductors. This is because the connection between this exotic property and the chemical structure of these materials is still unclear. Scientists do not know why some compounds become superconducting under certain conditions and others do not. Today's experiments can only help with the investigations to a limited extent: Even the analysis of a single material involves enormous effort and can only distinguish local phenomena down to about one micrometer.
- With PETRA IV, differences in the electronic structure of materials become directly visible, quantifiable, and ultimately controllable at the local, atomic level.
- PETRA IV pushes the boundaries of current spectroscopic methods. Processes in functional materials can be observed live.
- The combination of high energy resolution and high spatial resolution of PETRA IV has the potential to revolutionize the understanding of functional materials whose macroscopic properties are based on quantum states.
