A discovery made at TU Wien (Vienna) could be an important step in this direction: A team of solid-state physicists studied an unusual material -- a so-called "strange metal" made of ytterbium, rhodium and silicon. Strange metals show an unusual relationship between electrical resistance and temperature. In the case of this material, this correlation can be seen in a particularly wide temperature range, and the underlying mechanism is known. Contrary to previous assumptions, it now turns out that this material is also a superconductor and that superconductivity is closely related to strange metal behaviour. This could be the key to understanding high-temperature superconductivity in other classes of materials as well.
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