Superconductors escape Flatland

A flat, two-dimensional flow of electric current has long been thought essential to the secret of how high-temperature superconductors work. But new research shows that an iron-based superconductor allows current to flow in three dimensions.

For at least some high-temperature superconductors, the mechanism that enables electrons to flow with zero resistance doesn’t depend on the electrons moving along the boundary between layers in the material, the new research shows.