Laser mastery narrows down sources of superconductivity  Mon,
02/25/2013 - 9:35am  Inside a clean room, Brookhaven physicists
Ivan Bozovic (left) and Anthony Bollinger work on the molecular
beam epitaxy system that produced the atomically perfect
materials used in the study. Image: Brookhaven National
LaboratoryIdentifying the mysterious mechanism underlying high-
temperature superconductivity (HTS) remains one of the most
important and tantalizing puzzles in physics. This remarkable
phenomenon allows electric current to pass with perfect
efficiency through materials chilled to subzero temperatures,
and it may play an essential role in revolutionizing the entire
electricity chain, from generation to transmission and grid-
scale storage. Pinning down one of the possible explanations for
HTS—fleeting fluctuations called charge-density waves
(CDWs)—could help solve the mystery and pave the way for rapid
technological advances.  Now, researchers at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and the U.S. Department o