A new state of matter has been discovered by scientists; it’s called the ‘Jahn-Teller-metal’, which is similar to an insulator, superconductor, metal and magnet, present together. The discovery has been made by scientists at Tokohu University in Japan. The scientists made the discovery by analyzing a superconductor made from carbon-60 molecules or ‘buckyballs’.

According to scientists, the research could help in creating new molecular materials; these are superconductors at higher temperatures. According to the study, the material consists of insulating, magnetic, metallic and superconducting phases - together with the unknown state, named as ‘Jahn-Teller metal’.

The research helps know regarding role of the interplay between the electronic structure of the molecules and their spacing within the lattice in interactions between electrons that lead to superconductivity.

Superconductors, a large and varied group of materials, offer zero resistance to electrical currents at a critical temperature (TC). For over two decades, superconducting lattices of fullerides are being studied. Superconducting lattices of fullerides are C60 plus three alkali-metal atoms. The abstract of the research has been published in Science Advances.

The study was led by Kosmas Prassides of Tohoku University, a post-doctoral researcher who recently joined the faculty. As per the abstract of the study, it is not easy to understand the connection between the superconducting, the neighboring insulating, and the normal metallic state more than TC.

According to the researchers, the molecular A3C60 fulleride superconductors consist of a parent antiferromagnetic insulator together with the atom-based cuprates, however at this point, the geometry and spin state of the structural building unit is controlled by the C603– electronic structure through the on-molecule Jahn-Teller effect.

“We identify the Jahn-Teller metal as a fluctuating microscopically heterogeneous coexistence of both localized Jahn-Teller–active and itinerant electrons that connects the insulating and superconducting states of fullerides,” researchers explained.