Physicists find the 'ghost' of superconductivity in uranium ditelluride

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have found the first direct evidence of pair density waves (PDWs) in uranium ditelluride, showing that Cooper pairs persist in the material's ordinary phase after superconductivity disappears. The study was published in PNAS.

• PDWs directly observed in the ordinary phase of uranium ditelluride
• Spectral signatures respond to temperature and magnetic fields as theory predicts
• The PDW theory was proposed by Fradkin and colleagues in 2007
• Uranium ditelluride becomes superconducting below 2 kelvins