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This microscopic closeup shows a small sample of ytterbium dirhodium disilicide (YRS), one of the most-studied "heavy fermion" composites. The scale bar in the center of the screen is 1 millimeter wide. In a surprising find, physicists from the United States, Germany and China have discovered that nuclear effects help bring about superconductivity in YRS, a composite material that physicists have studied for more than a decade in an effort to probe the quantum effects believed to underlie high-temperature superconductivity.
Image credit: Photo courtesy of Marc Tippmann/Technical University of Munich
