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Dr. Jens Kortus
answers a few questions about this month's fast breaking
paper in field of Physics.
From
•>>June 2002
Field: Physics
Article Title:  Beyond Eliashberg superconductivity in MgB2:
Anharmonicity, two-phonon scattering, and multiple gaps - art. no. 087005
Authors: Liu, AY;Mazin, II;Kortus, J
Journal: PHYS REV LETT
Volume: 8708
Page: 7005-+
Year: AUG 20 2001
* Georgetown Univ, Dept Phys, Washington, DC 20057 USA.
* Georgetown Univ, Dept Phys, Washington, DC 20057 USA.
* USN, Res Lab, Ctr Computat Mat Sci, Washington, DC 20375 USA.
* MPI Festkorperforsch, Stuttgart, Germany.
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 Why
do you think your paper is highly cited?
MgB2, a recently discovered superconductor with a critical
temperature of 40K, has attracted enormous attention during the
last year. According to Science Watch it was one of the
hottest research topics in 2001. The two-gap model for
superconductivity suggested in our paper offers a simple
explanation of many anomalous experimental findings, the most
important of these being tunneling and thermodynamic
measurements.
Does
it describe a new discovery or new methodology that's useful to
others?
The most popular model which is able to describe many of its
surprising properties is the two-gap model, which predicts two
different superconducting gaps for the two different band
systems. This new concept has now considerable support from
experiment, as shown by STM and point-contact spectroscopy,
high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy and specific heat
measurements.
Can
you give us some background on this research?
One of us has had extensive experience with the theory of
two-band superconductivity. Another had the experience to
compute the necessary ingredients for this theory. Two of us
were the first authors of the very first theoretical paper on
superconductivity in MgB2 in general, thus providing an early
head
start in our thinking about this problem.
Could
you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?
Superconductivity is of enormous technical importance, and
one of the most interesting phenomena in solid state physics.
Our work adds to this field the concept of two-band
superconductivity, which is required to understand the recently
discovered superconductor MgB2. With a basic theoretical
understanding of superconductivity in MgB2 in place,
the focus of research is shifting
from basic science to applications.
 See
also Dr. Jens Kortus rankings in the Special Topic Magnesium Diboride Superconductors,
in Top 25 Papers (#17)
and Top Authors (in both total
citations and cites per
paper).
Prof. Amy Y. Liu
Department of Physics
Georgetown University Washington, DC, USA
Dr. Igor I. Mazin
Center for Computational Material Science
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA
Dr. Jens Kortus
Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research Stuttgart, Germany
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ESI Special
Topics, June 2002
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/fbp/comments/june02-JensKortus.html
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