SAN JOSE, Calif. – IBM cited progress in its quest for an
atomic-level memory technology that could someday replace hard
disk drives and said the hunt for room-temperature
superconductors continues. “There’s no barrier [to finding room-
temperature superconductors], it’s just a question of finding
the route,” said Stuart Parkin, an IBM Fellow and manager of its
magnetoelectronics group in an interview with EE Times during a
symposium on the topic at IBM Almaden Research Lab here.
Superconductors offer no electrical resistance, opening the door
to advances such as high-speed trains and power transmissions,
but to date they require cooling to extremely low temperatures
using liquid nitrogen. With room-temperature superconductors you
could more easily “build quantum computing devices, exquisitely
sensitive sensors to explore phenomena such as brain waves,
store and transmit energy more effectively and manipulate more
objects with levitation,” said Parkin. IBM’s lab (above) is
exploring new kinds of man-made mater