Using a quantum simulator, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and the Cluster of Excellence MCQST have observed pairs of charge carriers that may be responsible for the resistance-free transport of electric current in high-temperature superconductors. So far, the exact physical mechanisms in these complex materials are still largely unknown. Theories assume that the cause for the pair formation and thus for the phenomenon of superconductivity lies in magnetic forces. The team in Garching has now for the first time been able to demonstrate pairs which are formed this way. Their experiment was based on a lattice-like arrangement of cold atoms, as well as on a tricky suppression of the movement of free charge carriers. The researchers report on their results in the journal Nature.
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