What is LaNiGa2?

Researchers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have discovered a new class of unconventional superconductors. While in conventional superconductors the electrons in a Cooper pair (radical re-organisation of electrons to behave like a single entity) have a total spin of zero, in other, exotic superconductors the electronic spins line up, so the Cooper pair has some spin of its own. The present team has produced evidence of a material having this exotic property, namely . The discovery of a new family of unconventional superconductors is a rare event.