A superconducting diode without an external magnetic field

Superconductors are the key to lossless current flow. However, the realization of superconducting diodes has only recently become an important topic of fundamental research. An international research team involving the theoretical physicist Mathias Scheurer from the University of Innsbruck have now succeeded in reaching a milestone: the realization of a superconducting diode effect without an external magnetic field, thus proving the assumption that superconductivity and magnetism coexist. They report on this in Nature Physics.