At low temperatures, strontium titanate (SrTiO3) is able to conduct electricity without any resistance.
The fact it isn't a metal and can still accomplish this has long been a mystery. Now physicists have their first clues on why it defies current theories on superconducting materials, and it just might set the stage for a revolution in electronics.
New research lead by the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University has found strontium titanate behaves in a weirdly opposite way to superconducting metals.
Ironically, it helps explain why it is a superconductor itself.
"This is a system where everything is upside down," says Stanford physicist Harold Hwang.
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