High Temperature Superconductivity: Competing order

High-temperature superconductivity offers the potential to revolutionize electrical power usage, facilitating low-carbon technologies like fusion reactors and electric aircraft. To harness this potential, a deep understanding of the fundamental physics of these materials is crucial.

This project focuses on cuprate superconductors, contributing to the global quest to unveil the underlying mechanisms of superconductivity. A key question is the role of competing ordering tendencies related to charge and spin excitations. This project aims to determine whether these tendencies support, hinder, or remain unrelated to superconductivity.

Measurement techniques, including electrical and thermal transport, specific heat, and external parameters like hydrostatic pressure and stress, will be employed to investigate the competing phases. High magnetic fields will be used in experiments, both in Bristol and international centres in Toulouse and Nijmegen.