Cooper pairs found above superconducting critical temperature in pair density waves

Physicists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Grainger College of Engineering identified a new form of superconducting behavior in uranium ditelluride: Cooper pairs organize into nonuniform patterns that persist even when the main superconducting phase is absent.

• Experiments were performed on the metal uranium ditelluride (UTe2)
• Cooper pairs form nonuniform patterns known as pair density waves
• These structures exist even when the main superconducting phase is absent