{"id":244186,"date":"2026-09-18T02:25:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T07:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/disorder-is-key-to-tuning-a-high-temperature-superconductor"},"modified":"2026-09-18T02:25:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T07:25:27","slug":"disorder-is-key-to-tuning-a-high-temperature-superconductor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/disorder-is-key-to-tuning-a-high-temperature-superconductor","title":{"rendered":"Disorder is key to tuning a high-temperature superconductor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/disorder-is-key-to-tuning-a-high-temperature-superconductor.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cornell physicists have discovered that minimizing disorder, not varying electron count, is the key factor for controlling superconductivity in the unique material iron selenide (FeSe), a new insight for understanding high-temperature superconductors.<\/p>\n<p>Using a new technique to control this iron-based superconductor, researchers in Kyle Shen\u2019s lab have found that iron selenide\u2019s superconducting \u201cdome\u201d\u2014the curve tracing how superconductivity strengthens and then weakens as the properties are tuned\u2014is more closely linked to resistance caused by imperfections in its crystal lattice than to the number of electrons flowing through the crystal. Iron selenide could be fundamentally different from other high-temperature (or unconventional) superconductors, the finding suggests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found that in this material, that dome is driven by factors much different than what you see normally,\u201d said postdoctoral researcher Paul Malinowski, a former Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&amp;S). \u201cIt\u2019s not driven by how many electrons you\u2019re adding in, but rather, it\u2019s driven by the obstacles the electrons are hitting\u2014how perfect or imperfect is the crystal lattice?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cornell physicists have discovered that minimizing disorder, not varying electron count, is the key factor for controlling superconductivity in the unique material iron selenide (FeSe), a new insight for understanding high-temperature superconductors. Using a new technique to control this iron-based superconductor, researchers in Kyle Shen\u2019s lab have found that iron selenide\u2019s superconducting \u201cdome\u201d\u2014the curve tracing [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1635,219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-materials","category-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}