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Experts in superconductivity and ultrasensitive detectors of electromagnetic radiation meet 25.-26.9.2018 in Jyväskylä, marking the start of the four-year EU FET Open project SUPERTED.

SUPERTED will realize the world's first SUPERconducting ThermoElectric Detector of electromagnetic radiation. This allows the building of new ultrasensitive detectors with large pixel arrays. These detectors will not be hampered by excess heating, which is causing problems in the present-day superconducting detectors. Such detectors have multitude of applications ranging from imaging cosmic radiation to materials analysis, thermal radiation based security screening and imaging biological samples.

The opening meeting of the project will be held in the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ Seminarium hall on the 25th September, and it continues in the Nanoscience Center on Wednesday the 26th. In addition to researchers from Jyväskylä, the project involves researchers from San Sebastian in Spain, Pisa in Italy, and Grenoble in France.

First superconducting thermoelectric detector

In a thermoelectric detector the absorbed radiation heats up the electrons and thereby causing a temperature difference between two electrodes. This temperature difference causes an electric current via the thermoelectric effect. The effect is usually very weak at low temperatures required for improving the detector sensitivity, but according to the recent research a suitable combination of superconductors and magnets leads to a very strong thermoelectric effect.

- Jyväskylä is a natural place for the first meeting, because the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ physics department has a strong expertise in superconducting sensors and nanoelectronics, explains Prof. Tero Heikkilä, who leads the SUPERTED project.

SUPERTED project got an almost 3-million euro funding from the European Commission FET Open program aimed to support research on radical future technologies. The funding is obtained only after a fierce competition as typically the success rate has been lower than 5 %. SUPERTED is the first FET Open project coordinated by the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥.

Further information:

• Project website:
• Superted in Twitter: @SupertedP
• Email: superted@jyu.fi
• Project director Prof. Tero Heikkilä, +358 40 8054804
• Project coordinator Heli Lehtivuori, +358 40 805 4517
• Prof. Ilari Maasilta, +358 40 805 4098