vortices

Scientists in Japan have discovered that tiny steps just one atom high can act like microscopic railroad tracks, guiding the movement of quantum vortices inside an ultrathin superconductor.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

Being able to control where these vortices travel could therefore help scientists improve superconducting devices.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

Using scanning tunneling microscopy, a technique capable of imaging surfaces at the atomic level, the researchers confirmed that the steps ran parallel to one another and directly observed vortices positioned along them.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

Within this range, vortices could flow freely along the steps without becoming trapped by imperfections in the material.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

All of this can be explained very well in the atomic model of the world, but only with much greater difficulty using Cartesian vortices.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin