Novel Properties of Mesostructured Superconductors Synthesized via Block Copolymer Self Assembled Nanocomposites

The effect of mesoscale confinement or ordering on the properties of superconductors is an active area of study, but to date this work has largely been done using 2D materials. Three-dimensionally mesostructured superconductors are expected to behave very differently than their 2D or bulk analogues, but exploration of such materials has been limited by the lack of available methods for their synthesis. We demonstrate multiple routes to superconductors with mesoscale order and porosity though the self-assembly of block copolymer nanocomposites. This represents a versatile, robust, and tunable platform for the investigation of 3D mesostructured superconductors. Our results show changes in the superconducting properties of multiple materials when synthesized in block copolymer derived 3D periodic structures such as the bicontinuous double gyroid and the alternating gyroid, suggesting quantum metamaterials behavior.