Conférence du vendredi 20 mars 2026

New high temperature superconductors - Davide Hawthorne (UWaterloo)

Abstract: Superconductors exhibit remarkable properties including perfect electrical conduction, magnetic repulsion (the Meissner effect) and macroscopic quantum coherence. These unique properties make superconductors important for technological applications such as MRI, quantum sensors (photon and magnetic field detectors), high-field magnets, lossless power transmission and quantum computers. A key challenge for many of these technologies is that superconductors require cooling materials to cryogenic temperatures, fueling a long search for higher temperature more practical superconductors. Along with this technological goal understanding the rich physics that occurs in high temperature superconductors remains a grand challenge in physics. In this talk, I will review superconductors, the charge density wave state the competes with superconductivity in cuprate superconductors, and recent discoveries a new family of nickel-oxide based high temperature superconductors. Along the way, I will describe how our group uses an advanced synchrotron-based experimental technique, resonant x-ray scattering, to probe electronic and magnetic order that occurs in high-temperature superconductors.

Biography: Professor David Hawthorn is Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo. His research is primarily focused on studies of Quantum Materials, such as high temperature superconductors, using advanced synchrotron-based x-ray techniques – resonant soft x-ray scattering and x-ray absorption spectroscopy.