A group of Korean researchers discovered a new single crystal material which has both magnetism and superconductivity, taking one step closer towards the development of a room temperature superconductor, which can be used to improve the performance of MRI devices and commercialize superconducting magnetic levitation trains.

Professor Beong-Ki Cho (age 52, Deputy Director) at the Grunberg Magnetic Nano Materials Research Instituteof Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST   President   Young Joon Kim) and Mr. Nak-Heon Sung, a PhD student at the School of Materials Science and Engineering (First author) of GIST, led and PhD. Kwang-Suk Kim of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology participated in the research which was sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of Korea as part of their joint initiatives to support senior researchers (strategic research) and advanced research institutes (NCRC). The research paper was published in the latest issue (December) of “Physical Review B” which is a prestigious academic journal in the field of physics. (Title of Paper: Possible multi-gap superconductivity and magnetism in single crystals of superconducting La2Pt3Ge5 and Pr2Pt3Ge5)

In particular, the research paper was the only one written by Korean researchers among those named as the “Editor’s Suggestion (top 5% research papers)” by Physical Review B in 2012.