Quantum Levitation Hovers on the Horizon

Science has proven it’s possible to make the Back to the Future II hover board a thing of the future. But first scientists need to overcome the need to flash freeze the object in order to turn it into a superconductor, which makes quantum levitation possible.

Team Demonstrates Quantum Levitation Above A Magnetic Track

You’d have to be zipping through the cold of space before quantum levitation would work on a practical scale.

But for now, a demonstration from a group at Tel-Aviv University shows a frozen superconducting disc floating above a magnetic track. It’s enough to conjure thoughts of smooth commutes on magnetic roads.
Think of the high-speed Maglev trains that Japan, China and Korea use to race people around using a frictionless system of magnets to propel the cars just inches above the track.

Using the quantum levitation instead of magnetic levitation would allow a Quantlev train to be suspended beneath the track as well as on top.

How Quantum Levitation Works

First you need a superconductor. In this case a sapphire crystal wafer coated in a ceramic barium copper oxide layer. Then supercool the material to below 301 degrees F. And voila, you’ve built a superconductor, a material that conducts electricity without resistance, with no energy loss.

Then you need to understand that superconductors don’t like magnetic fields and magnetic fields don’t like superconductors either. Using this mutual disdain to your advantage, simply put a superconductor into a magnetic field and watch as it becomes locked in place.

The Meissner effect explains how this works. Superconductive material will try to expel a magnetic field from inside. Because the superconducting wafer is thin the magnetic field can penetrate the disc. But as it does so, a quantum disruption takes place, pushing the magnetic field to the periphery of the superconductor and destroying the superconductivity in very localized areas, which physicists call flux tubes.

The superconductor keeps the flux tubes pinned in weak areas allowing any movement of the superconductor to carry the flux tubes with it. Since the disrupted magnetic field, now turned into a field of flux tubes moves with the superconductor, the material is trapped in midair.

Here’s a more detailed explanation of how quantum levitation works.

At the 2011 Association for Science and Technology Centers conference a physics research team led by Tel-Aviv University professor Guy Deutscher demonstrated the concept to the top brass in the science center circuit.