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MIT scientists finally see hidden quantum “jiggling” inside superconductors

A new terahertz microscope lets scientists see superconducting electrons “jiggle” for the first time—unlocking secrets of future energy and communication tech.

Date:

March 17, 2026

Source:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Summary:

MIT physicists have built a powerful new microscope that uses terahertz light to uncover hidden quantum motions inside superconductors. By compressing this normally unwieldy light into a tiny region, they were able to observe electrons moving together in a frictionless, wave-like state for the first time. This discovery opens a new window into how superconductors really work. It could also help drive future breakthroughs in high-speed wireless communication.

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FULL STORY

An artist’s depiction of a superfluid wave propagating through a layered superconductor. Credit: Sampson Wilcox and Emily Theobald

The kind of light used to examine a material can reveal very different details. Visible light shows what's happening on a surface, X-rays expose what lies inside, and infrared detects heat being emitted.

Now, researchers at MIT have taken a major step forward by using terahertz light to uncover quantum-level vibrations inside a superconducting material. These subtle motions had never been directly observed before.

What Makes Terahertz Light Unique

Terahertz radiation sits between microwaves and infrared light on the electromagnetic spectrum. It pulses more than a trillion times per second, closely matching the natural vibrations of atoms and electrons within materials. In theory, this makes it an ideal way to study those movements.

However, there is a major challenge. The wavelength, or the distance between repeating peaks of the wave, is very long, measuring hundreds of microns. Because light cannot be focused into a spot smaller than its wavelength, terahertz beams are too large to clearly probe tiny structures. Instead of revealing fine details, they tend to wash over microscopic samples.

A New Terahertz Microscope Breakthrough

In a study published in Nature, MIT scientists report a solution. They created a new type of terahertz microscope that compresses this long-wavelength light into an extremely small region. This focused beam can now detect quantum-scale features that were previously out of reach.

Using this tool, the team examined a material called bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide, or BSCCO (pronounced "BIS-co"), which becomes superconducting at relatively high temperatures. The microscope allowed them to observe a frictionless flow of electrons behaving like a "superfluid," moving together and oscillating at terahertz frequencies within the material.

"This new microscope now allows us to see a new mode of superconducting electrons that nobody has ever seen before," says Nuh Gedik, the Donner Professor of Physics at MIT.

Why This Discovery Matters

Studying BSCCO and similar materials with terahertz light could help scientists better understand superconductivity and move closer to developing room-temperature superconductors. The technology may also help identify materials that can emit and detect terahertz radiation.

Such materials could play a key role in future wireless systems that operate at terahertz frequencies, potentially enabling much faster data transmission than current microwave-based technologies.

"There's a huge push to take Wi-Fi or telecommunications to the next level, to terahertz frequencies," says Alexander von Hoegen, a postdoc in MIT's Materials Research Laboratory and lead author of the study. "If you have a terahertz microscope, you could study how terahertz light interacts with microscopically small devices that could serve as future antennas or receivers."

The research team also included MIT scientists Tommy Tai, Clifford Allington, Matthew Yeung, Jacob Pettine, Alexander Kossak, Byunghun Lee, and Geoffrey Beach, along with collaborators from Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The Diffraction Limit Problem

Terahertz light has long been considered promising for imaging because it occupies a useful middle ground. Like radio waves and visible light, it is nonionizing and safe for biological tissues. At the same time, it can penetrate many materials, including fabrics, plastics, wood, and even thin walls, similar to X-rays.

Because of these advantages, terahertz radiation is being explored for security scanning, medical imaging, and communications. But its use in microscopy has been limited by a fundamental constraint known as the diffraction limit. This rule restricts how finely light can resolve details based on its wavelength.

Since terahertz wavelengths are much larger than atoms and molecules, they c