Physicists outran a superconductor’s collapse, and found two materials lose their powers in completely different ways

[u/intengineering]

https://interestingengineering.com/science/scientists-smash-speed-limit-superconductors

When too much current flows, a superconductor’s paired electrons get ripped apart in a few billionths of a second, ending superconductivity. Researchers from Max Planck, ETH Zurich, Oxford and Shanghai built an optical-electrical circuit fast enough to catch it, then tested two materials: niobium nitride and a YBCO cuprate.

Niobium nitride stayed superconducting until a threshold, then dropped out abruptly, while YBCO faded gradually. The team ties the difference to each material’s electron pairing symmetry. The catch is that this is a fundamental physics result, not a new superconductor, and it was published in Nature Physics.