Tom Devereaux and Patrick Kirchmann, researchers with the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES), have received research awards from the Humboldt Foundation. The awards will help them explore the mechanism of superconductivity in the recently discovered class of superconductors known as iron pnictides.
Devereaux, along with his long-time collaborator Rudi Hacki, will work on developing theories of advanced light scattering spectroscopy and its applications for the study of superconductivity. Devereaux received the Humboldt Foundation Prize, which supports long-tern research projects by alumni fellows.
Kirchmann, a post doctoral researcher at SIMES, received the Feodor Lynen Fellowship, which will give him up to two years of support for research work abroad. Kirschmann came to SIMES from the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin.
The work of Devereaux and Kirchmann will focus on iron pnictides, the class of superconductors that are capable of superconductivity at warmer temperatures than ceramic materials. Part of their work will be to detail the properties of these newly discovered materials to understand how well the materials conduct heat and carry an electrical current.
“Conventional theory cannot describe why high-temperature superconductivity occurs,” Kirchmann said. “There are still lots of open questions. It takes a lot of time to establish a foundation of knowledge.”
[Source: SLAC Today]
