Archive State Memory and Reentrance in a Paramagnetically Limited Superconductor V. Yu. Butko, P. W. Adams, and E. I. Meletis Phys. Inc. Miraculous metal. Thin sheets of aluminum are excellent for containing beverages, but they also have surprising properties at low temperatures. Under certain conditions, ultrathin aluminum films require heating to become superconducting.
Many metals dramatically lose all electrical resistance when they are chilled to low temperatures.
But the 1 November PRL describes a case where superconductivity can arise from heating the sample, if it starts out cold enough. These strange properties were observed in thin films of aluminum, a metal whose superconductivity was thought to be well understood. The researchers hope that a complete explanation of their data will lead to new insights into superconductivity. So the state of a superconductor is determined by both temperature and magnetic field. When Philip Adams of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and his colleagues looked at these properties in thin films of aluminum, they found some surprises.