Extra June, 2012

Date of Issue: June 1, 2012

Superconductivity Web21
Superconductivity

Published by International Superconductivity Technology Center
1-10-13 Shinonome Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0062, Japan Tel:+81-3-3536-7283, Fax:+81-3-3536-5717

What’s New in the World of Superconductivity(April, 2012)
Yutaka Yamada, Principal Research Fellow
Superconductivity Research Laboratory, ISTEC★News sources in this issue

Wire
AMSC (April 10, 2012)
AMSC has filed an appeal with China’s Supreme People’s Court regarding the Hainan Higher Court’sdecision to uphold the Hainan Province No.1 Intermediate People’s Court dismissal of AMSC’s civil caseagainst Sinovel Wind Group Co., Ltd. and Dalian Guotong Electric Co., Ltd. The case in question is thesmallest of four legal actions that AMSC has brought against Sinovel. AMSC is seeking to recover, in total,
more than $1.2 billion for contracted shipments and damages arising from contractual breaches and thediscovery of intellectual property theft by Sinovel employees. The present case in question involves acopyright infringement lawsuit; AMSC is seeking a cease and desist order and damages totaling
approximately US$ 200,000. The rationale for AMSC’s appeal to the Supreme People’s Court is that thecase is a copyright infringement dispute, rather than a contractual matter, and therefore belongs within theThis work was subsidized by JKA using promotion funds fromKEIRIN RACE.
Extra June, 2012

© ISTEC 2012 All rights reserved.

-1-Extra June, 2012

Date of Issue: June 1, 2012

Superconductivity Web21
Superconductivity

Published by International Superconductivity Technology Center
1-10-13 Shinonome Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0062, Japan Tel:+81-3-3536-7283, Fax:+81-3-3536-5717civil court system. Furthermore, in another case, a ruling by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court denied
Sinovel’s motion to dismiss a similar software copyright infringement dispute, indicating that the jurisdiction
opposition raised by Sinovel in the present case lacks factual and legal basis and is inadmissible. Finally,
the case against Guotong was dismissed despite the absence of a contractual relationship between AMSC
and Guotong, making it impossible to solve the dispute through arbitration. John Powell, AMSC Vice
President and General Counsel, commented, "We applaud the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court'sdecision and are disappointed that the Hainan courts have made inconsistent and, we strongly believe,improper rulings. While this case means little to us from a monetary perspective, we will continue to seek
justice through the Chinese courts on this matter of global importance."
Source: “AMSC Submits Appeal to China’s Supreme People’s Court”
AMSC press release (April 10, 2012)
http://ir.amsc.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=662919
Contact: Jason Fredette jason.fredette@amsc.com
Superconductor Technologies Inc. (April 11, 2012)
Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI) has received notification from the NASDAQ Stock Market Listing
Qualifications Department stating that STI’s common stock bid price has fallen below $1.00 for a period of30 consecutive business days and has therefore failed to meet NASDAQ’s minimum bid price rule. The
notification will have no effect on the listing of STI’s common stock at this time. STI has been provided a
180-day grace period, until October 2, 2012, to regain compliance, which will require that the bid price for
STI’s common stock close at $1.00 or higher for a minimum of 10 consecutive days within the grace period.
If STI fails to regain compliance, it may still be eligible for an additional 180-day grace period. STI plans tomonitor the closing bid price of its common stock and may consider implementing available options toregain compliancy, if appropriate.
Source: “Superconductor Technologies Inc. Receives NASDAQ Bid Price Deficiency Letter”
Superconductor Technologies Inc. press release (April 11, 2012)
SuperPower (April 23, 2012)
SuperPower participated in the Hannover Messe SuperConducting City Exhibition (April 23-27, 2012),
providing an exhibition that focused on the applications of its second-generation (2G) HTS wire,summarized below.
SuperPower’s 2G HTS wire has been used by Nexans SuperConductors GmbH in the world’s first resistive
superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) based on 2G HTS materials, which was recently installed at apower plant in Germany to provide short-circuit protection for the power supply feeding coal mills andcrushers. The 2G HTS wires reduced the already low losses in the conductor material by around 90 %,lowering operating costs and providing a faster response time to short circuits.
Oswald Elektromotoren GmbH has also selected SuperPower’s 2G HTS wires for a superconducting
motor project. For this application, the 2G HTS wires enable the development of a smaller and lighter motorwith an increased efficiency and an extended device lifetime. In addition, the use of SuperPower’s
Advanced Pinning (AP) wire, which exhibits an enhanced critical current performance at a range ofoperating conditions, will enable a reduction in AC losses (a major concern in motor applications).
Thirdly, a new world record in magnetic field generation—35.4 Tesla—was achieved in October 2011 at theExtra June, 2012

© ISTEC 2012 All rights reserved.

-2-Extra June, 2012

Date of Issue: June 1, 2012

Superconductivity Web21
Superconductivity

Published by International Superconductivity Technology Center
1-10-13 Shinonome Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0062, Japan Tel:+81-3-3536-7283, Fax:+81-3-3536-5717

National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University. The record was achieved using asuperconducting electromagnet with a 4.4-Tesla, layer-wound insert magnet constructed from a single
piece of SuperPower’s 2G HTS wire that was then “nested” inside a 31-Tesla resistive magnet.
Finally, the world’s first use of HTS magnets in a tokamak was announced in October 2011 by the fusion
research company Tokamak Solutions.
By collaborating with device manufacturers, SuperPower has been able to address customer price andperformance expectations and obtain a much deeper understanding of mechanical and performancerequirements for its 2G HTS wires. SuperPower now offers three varieties of 2G HTS wire, designed
specifically for cable and cable-related applications; in-magnetic field applications such as motors,
generators, and other high-field magnetics; and fault current limiter applications requiring a highly resistive
substrate. Customization can be extended to include variations in the chemical formulation, wiredimensions, substrate and stabilizer layer thicknesses, insulation, and low-resistance joints to increase
piece length.
Source: “SUPERPOWER’S HIGH PERFORMANCE SUPERCONDUCTOR WIRE IS SUCCESSFULLYINCOPORATED INTO A GROWING NUMBER OF DEMANDING APPLICATIONS”
SuperPower press release (April 23, 2012)
http://www.superpower-inc.com/content/superpower%E2%80%99s-high-performance-superconductor-wir
e-successfully-incorporated-growing-number-dContact: Traute F. Lehner, tlehner@superpower-inc.com

Accelerator
CERN (April 5, 2012)
CERN has announced that data collection by the LHC experiments has resumed for the first time in 2012.
Two “stable” 4 TeV proton beams have been brought into collision at the LHC’s four interaction points,generating a collision energy of 8 TeV—a new world record. The achievement will considerably increase
the machine’s discovery potential. While this increase in the collision energy is relatively modest, it will
enable an increased discovery potential that is likely to be several times higher for certain hypotheticalparticles, such as those predicted by supersymmetry and Standard Model Higgs particles. The LHC isscheduled to run until the end of 2012, when it will enter a long shutdown period in preparation for operation
at an energy level of 6.5 TeV per beam in late 2014.
Source: “LHC physics data taking gets underway at new record collision energy of 8 TeV”
CERN press release (April 5, 2012)
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2012/PR10.12E.html
Contact: CERN press office, press.office@cern.chCensor
National Institute of Standards and Technology (April 19, 2012)
A miniature atom-based magnetic sensor developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
Extra June, 2012

© ISTEC 2012 All rights reserved.

-3-Extra June, 2012

Date of Issue: June 1, 2012

Superconductivity Web21
Superconductivity

Published by International Superconductivity Technology Center
1-10-13 Shinonome Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0062, Japan Tel:+81-3-3536-7283, Fax:+81-3-3536-5717(NIST) has been successfully used to measure human brain activity, verifying the sensor’s potential forbiomedical applications such as studies on mental processes and neurological diseases. The mini-sensor
consists of a container of about 100 billion rubidium atoms in a gas, a low-power infrared laser, and fiber
optics to detect the light signals that register the magnetic field strength, with the atoms absorbing more lightas the magnetic field increases. The sensor’s results were verified by comparing them with signals recorded
using SQUIDs. Magnetometers utilizing SQUIDs are presently regarded as the “gold standard” for such
experiments. While the NIST mini-sensor is slightly less sensitive than a SQUID magnetometer at this point
in its development, it has the potential to provide a comparable performance while offering advantages insize, portability, and cost. Unlike the SQUID arrays that must be mounted in heavy helmet-shaped flasks
and cooled to only 4 degrees above absolute zero, the chip-scale NIST sensor is about the size of a sugar
cube and can operate at room temperature; these features could be translated into lightweight, flexible, andrelatively inexpensive magnetoencephalography helmets.
Source: “NIST mini-sensor measures magnetic activity in human brain”
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) press release (April 19, 2012)
http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/brain-041912.cfm
Contact: Laura Ost laura.ost@nist.gov

DeviceRIKEN Advanced Science Institute (April 18, 2012)
Researchers at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute and their collaborators have developed a new typeof quantum bit called a “phase-slip qubit” that has enabled the world’s first-ever experimental demonstrationof coherent quantum phase slip (CQPS). In CQPS, magnetic flux quanta jump from one insulator toanother across a superconducting layer (the reverse of what occurs in the Josephson effect). Instead of thequantum tunneling of electrons that occurs in a Josephson junction, a coherent “slip” of the phase occurs.
Long theorized, the RIKEN researchers and their colleagues have now reported the first direct observationof CQPS in a narrow superconducting wire of indium-oxide (InOx). The wire was inserted into a larger
superconducting loop to form a new device called a phase-slip qubit, with the superconducting thin wire
sandwiched between two insulating layers of empty space. By tuning the magnetic flux penetrating the loop
while scanning the microwave frequencies, the researchers were able to detect a band gap in the energy
curves for the two flux states of the system, as predicted theoretically. In addition to demonstratingconclusively the existence of CQPS, the experiment is also expected to lead to a novel class of devices
exploiting the unique functionality of quantum phase-slip. The group’s work has been reported in Nature.
Source: “A new kind of quantum junction”
RIKEN Advanced Science Institute press release (April 18, 2012)
http://www.riken.jp/engn/r-world/info/release/press/2012/120419/index.html
Contact: RIKEN Global Relations Office koho@riken.jp

Quantum Simulator

Extra June, 2012

© ISTEC 2012 All rights reserved.

-4-Extra June, 2012

Date of Issue: June 1, 2012

Superconductivity Web21
Superconductivity

Published by International Superconductivity Technology Center
1-10-13 Shinonome Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0062, Japan Tel:+81-3-3536-7283, Fax:+81-3-3536-5717

National Institute of Standards and Technology (April 25, 2012)
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a quantum
simulator capable of engineering interactions among hundreds of qubits, a capability that is 10 times greaterthan that of previous devices. The simulator consists of a tiny, single-plane crystal of hundreds of beryllium
ions hovering inside a device called a Penning trap. The outermost electron of each ion acts as a tinyquantum magnet and is used as a qubit (the quantum equivalent of a ‘1’ or a ‘0’ in a conventional computer).
The simulator successfully passed a series of important benchmarking tests, and scientists are now poised
to study problems in material science that are impossible to model on conventional computers, such as therational design of high-temperature superconductors, the properties of which are believed to depend on thecollective quantum behavior of hundred of particles. Importantly, in addition to exploiting the quantum
mechanic property of superposition, the NIST simulator can also engineer a second quantum property:
entanglement between the qubits, in which even particles that are physically well separated can be tightlyinterconnected. The group’s work has been reported in Nature.
Source: “NIST physicists benchmark quantum simulator with hundreds of qubits”
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) press release (April 25, 2012)
http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/qubits-042512.cfm
Contact: Laura Ost laura.ost@nist.gov

Physics, Device
University of Cambridge (April 5, 2012)
Scientists working in the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge have, for the first time, used light to control
quantum tunnelling. Professor Jeremy Baumberg explained, “…the trick to telling electrons how to passthrough walls, is to marry them with light.” Research scientist Peter Cristofolini continued, “The offspring of
this marriage are actually new indivisible particles, made of both light and matter, which disappear throughthe slab-like walls of semiconductor at will.” These new particles have been named “dipolaritons”; one of
their features is that they are stretched out in a specific direction, like a bar magnet, and are subject toextremely strong forces acting between each other. These strongly interacting particles have attracted
considerable interest from semiconductor physicists trying to form condensates, the equivalent ofsuperconductors and superfluids that travel without loss, in semiconductors. The group’s research has
been published in Science.
Source: “Controlling quantum tunneling with light”
University of Cambridge press release (April 5, 2012)
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/controlling-quantum-tunnelling-with-light/
Contact: Gabriel Christmann gprmc2@cam.ac.uk

Physics
Carnegie Institution (April 12, 2012)
Carnegie scientists have succeeded in developing a new static compression technique that will enable
Extra June, 2012

© ISTEC 2012 All rights reserved.

-5-Extra June, 2012

Date of Issue: June 1, 2012

Superconductivity Web21
Superconductivity

Published by International Superconductivity Technology Center
1-10-13 Shinonome Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0062, Japan Tel:+81-3-3536-7283, Fax:+81-3-3536-5717

hydrogen to be observed under pressures never before achievable—300 Gigapascals, or nearly 3 million
times the normal atmospheric pressure—and at temperatures ranging from 12 K to close to room
temperature. Under high pressures, hydrogen is speculated to transform into a metal, possibly evenbecoming a superconductor or a superfluid that never freezes, which would represent a completely newand exotic state of matter. The group found that the molecular state of hydrogen was stable up toremarkably high pressures, confirming the extraordinary stability of the chemical bond between the atoms.
Evidence of a semi-metallic behavior in the dense molecular phase was found, but the material is likely tohave an electrical conductivity that is well below that of a full metal. Evidence of another phase of molecularhydrogen occurring at a relatively high temperature of 300 K and at pressures above 220 Gigapascals was
also seen; in this phase, the hydrogen formed a honeycomb composed of six-atom rings, similar to thecarbon structure of graphene. The group’s work has been published online in two separate papers in
Physical Review Letters.
Source: “Probing hydrogen under extreme conditions”
Carnegie Institution press release (April 12, 2012)
http://carnegiescience.mobi/news/probing_hydrogen_under_extreme_conditions
Contact: Tina McDowell, tmcdowell@ciw.edu

Top of Superconductivity Web21

Extra June, 2012

© ISTEC 2012 All rights reserved.

-6-