Zasadzinski, Coffey and Ahmadi to Publish Paper in Physical Review Letters

Omid Ahmadi, Ph.D. candidate in physics, Liam Coffey, associate professor of physics, and John Zasadzinski, professor of physics, will publish an article in the top journal Physical Review Letters, "Eliashberg analysis of tunneling experiments: Support for the pairing glue hypothesis in cuprate superconductors."

Zasadzinski said, "Our paper explains the origin of superconductivity in the class of compounds known as high temperature superconductors. These materials are copper oxides, and their discovery won the Nobel prize for the discoverers J.G. Bednorz and K.A. Muller in 1987. Our paper presents a theoretical analysis of tunneling spectroscopy data selected from a larger set taken over the past 20 years by a collaboration between IIT and Argonne National Laboratory. Our analysis shows that the mechanism for superconductivity involves a novel excitation known as the resonance spin mode observed in neutron scattering. This is quite different from conventional superconductors where ordinary lattice vibration (or phonons) are the cause."