Chapter 488: Look, You Seduced Me

Not long after, Xu Xu Qingzhou opened an email from Richard, with whom he had previously collaborated; this idealist was still in the LHC experimental team.

Counting from January, the experiment on the Higgs boson's partner particle had lasted seven months, and as far as he knew, there had been no progress.

Over here, Song Yao, tired of lying on the sofa, got up and hugged Xu Xu Qingzhou from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder as she watched the email with him.

"This one will probably be the same."

Xu Xu Qingzhou thought to himself and began reading the email.

【Professor Xu, first, I'd like to update you on the progress of testing your predicted Higgs boson partner particle in our LHC experiments. After the latest round of operation and data analysis, we have not observed any clear signal of this particle within the TeV energy range.】

【Although this result may not fully align with our theoretical model's expectations, I still believe there is room for further research—by adjusting coupling strength or energy scale, or exploring other decay channels.】

【You know, those people only care about experimental results.】

Richard invited Xu Xu Qingzhou to CERN to join the joint research.

Xu Xu Qingzhou politely declined—he had too much on his plate: running his own superconducting thin-film experiment and assisting Song Yao with her short-selling strategy paper.

Still, he added that once he had time, he would review the experimental data there and hoped to offer some reference insights.

"Aren't you going?"

"I'm not that interested in particle physics."

Xu Xu Qingzhou shook his head.

Many believed that with the discovery of the Higgs boson, the Standard Model was complete, but Xu Xu Qingzhou thought it was far from finished—if anything, it was more like a paper phenomenological model.

The next stage of particle physics might be finding a formula, like the Balmer formula, to classify the particle mass spectrum.

But that was extremely difficult—at least Xu Xu Qingzhou didn't have the energy to study it.

"Oh?"

"Besides quantum mechanics, right now it's condensed matter; in the future, new energy—after all, it's one of the hottest fields ahead. Fusion, batteries… See? I told you, you seduced me."

Song Yao's warm breath on his neck sent a shiver through him, making his thoughts scatter.

So sweet, so soft—who could resist that?

"Heh~"

Song Yao ignored the old lecher and shuffled off to the bedroom.

Late September.

The autumn air grew heavier; a light rain fell in the morning. Xu Xu Qingzhou left his umbrella at the lab entrance, greeted everyone, and sat down at his desk.

As soon as the experiment began, he was busy—his life was a straight line between home, lab, and library.

The experimental process was indeed rocky.

In the first week, they solved the precursor issue; in the second round, an ALD vacuum leak caused four days' worth of samples to oxidize and be ruined.

So Xu Xu Qingzhou and Carson became repairmen again, replacing the Viton seals.

Carson pointed at the computer: "Professor Xu, the data from last week is processed."

"Thanks."

Xu Xu Qingzhou nodded and checked the experimental data.

Carson handled data cleaning—removing outliers or using interpolation to fill gaps; Sun Sun Simin and Ma Ma Ersi took care of simpler tasks: standardizing and categorically encoding the data.

Ma Ma Ersi couldn't help saying: "Professor, I saw the institute bulletin—James's team has finished their third round of experiments. Using atomic layer deposition, they've reduced interface defect density by 90% and extended qubit relaxation time to 500 microseconds, with decoherence time breaking 200 microseconds."

"Oh, impressive," Xu Xu Qingzhou nodded slightly.

"That's it?" Ma Ma Ersi scratched his head; the professor didn't seem worried at all.

Xu Xu Qingzhou thought for a moment, nodded, and said gravely: "Being able to compete with a team like that proves we're also impressive."

"."

Sun Sun Simin and Ma Ma Ersi exchanged glances; now that they thought about it, their team really was impressive.

"This announcement is for the Project Management Office and investors—but it's also for us."

Carson spun his office chair, poured himself a glass of water, returned to his seat, and continued with experience: "Doing research is like eating chocolate—you never know what flavor the next piece will be."

Many research groups were buried in this cutting-edge field; hearing this news naturally brought pressure—some pushed harder, while others gave up entirely, even sending their experimental data to the leading group in exchange for a co-authorship.

That's called timely withdrawal.

Better than spending a year working hard only to find someone else already published your topic.

"Alright, to show respect for such a strong opponent, you two should go read." Xu Xu Qingzhou tapped the table.

Sun Sun Simin and Ma Ma Ersi nodded and lowered their heads to continue reading their notes.

Over here, Xu Xu Qingzhou turned his gaze to the computer screen, examining the data from sample A08.

For the past month, they'd mostly done pilot tests—verifying whether graphene substrates could withstand ALD deposition temperatures and testing the feasibility of metal ALD growth.

Very basic work—like choosing and testing different bricks, rebar, and cement before building a skyscraper.

The problem with sample A07: during electrochemical exfoliation (FeCl), the film tore or wrinkled, causing uneven ALD deposition substrates.

After trials, they ultimately adopted a double-layer PMMA protection: first spin-coating 300nm PMMA, then covering it with 50nm PDMS to enhance mechanical strength.

Finally, they used low-voltage exfoliation—voltage ≤1V, electrolyte temperature controlled at 25±2°C—to minimize stress damage.

"Hmm, the tearing issue is solved."

Xu Xu Qingzhou scanned the rows of data, nodded in satisfaction—but ten minutes later, his gaze stopped.

【EDS shows Nb: Sn = 3.5:1 ± 0.2.】

"Nb: Sn atomic ratio deviates by ±17%."

Xu Xu Qingzhou leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples.

"Yes, the critical temperature dropped from the theoretical 18K to 15K; at 4.2K/12T, the critical current density is only 5×10 A/cm."

Carson sighed: "Besides that, plasma reduction efficiency is insufficient—when H plasma power is 80W, Sn content is only 80%, and residual SnO reduces superconducting phase purity to 70%."

"Leave it to me."

Xu Xu Qingzhou nodded slightly, checked the time—it was already 4 p. m. —and said: "Everyone's worked hard these past days. But more than that, I think two days off will make you happy."

"Boss, let's go for drinks tonight?" Carson stood up, inviting. His philosophy: when you can let loose, let loose.

"You guys go ahead—I've got other things to do," Xu Xu Qingzhou smiled and shook his head, still thinking about how to solve the problems in this round of experiments.

"Alright."

Carson didn't press; he knew Xu Xu Qingzhou was probably preoccupied with experimental issues. His gaze turned to Ma Ma Ersi and Sun Sun Simin.

Sun Sun Simin quickly shook her head—bars weren't good places in her mind.

"I—"

Ma Ma Ersi really wanted to let loose, but looking at the book in front of him—Partial Differential Equations—he sighed and shrugged: "I still have to finish the professor's deadly assignment."

On October 3, Xu Xu Qingzhou will test them—only those who pass stay in the group.

"OK, sorry—you two missed a wild party."

(End of chapter)