This interview appeared in the March/April 2012 issue of Dimensions magazine.
Picture a steaming air hockey puck spinning in a circle while floating in midair. This strange vision resembles a phenomenon demonstrated by Tel Aviv University’s Superconductivity Group at the 2011 ASTC Annual Conference in Baltimore last October. The “floating puck” was in fact a crystal wafer coated with a thin layer of ceramic material and cooled to -301˚ F (-185˚ C). At that point it becomes a superconductor, conducting electricity without resistance or energy loss—unlike the copper wires often used in electrical devices, which inefficiently cast off some electricity as it flows through.
Although superconductivity was discovered a century ago by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, the researchers at Tel Aviv University were the first to create a thin superconductor using high-quality materials. They also discovered that the improved features of this new applied superconductor enabled it to levitate.
The result, called quantum levitation, looks like a scene in a futuristic film, perhaps explaining why a video of the demonstration went viral, earning 5 million views within a week. Tel Aviv University physicist Boaz Almog, who is heard explaining the phenomenon in the video, talked with Dimensions about superconductivity’s past, present, and future.
About the image: Members of Tel Aviv University’s Superconductivity Group (from left to right: Guy Deutscher, Barak Deutscher, Mishael Azoulay, and Boaz Almog) demonstrate quantum levitation. Photo courtesy Boaz Almog