Iron Based Superconductors

Discovered in 2008, iron based superconductors are the latest high temperature superconductors which have aroused enormous attention in the scientific community. Finding superconductivity in compounds containing iron, after two decades of intensive research on the high temperature cuprates was a surprise to the scientists in this field, as they thought that the magnetic nature of iron would disrupt the pairing of electrons in the superconducting state. These materials exhibit high upper critical field, high critical current density, very high intrinsic pinning potential and low anisotropy compared with MgB2 and other conventional superconductors, and even cuprate superconductors. Iron based superconductors would be good candidates for use in electricity generators, cheaper medical imaging scanners, and extremely fast levitating trains.