Gamma Rays Transform Ytterbium Metal into Something Strange

Ytterbium, a "strange metal" with unique electrical conductivity, has been found to have two absorption peaks for radiation instead of the usual one. Researchers exposed an alloy of ytterbium, aluminum, and boron to gamma rays to study its response to temperature and pressure. They observed charge fluctuations producing a double peak in the absorption spectrum, which may be a distinctive feature of all strange metals. The behavior of ytterbium's conductivity under cold conditions presents an anomaly that researchers hope to explain and could prove useful in the search for high-temperature superconducting materials.