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“Kings of Cool” Superconductivity Who Are These People? SUPERCONDUCTORS

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“Kings of Cool” Superconductivity Who Are These People? SUPERCONDUCTORS “““Kings of Cool” Superconductivity Who are these people? SUPERCONDUCTORS An Introduction by Prof George Walmsley Normal conductor eg copper • Current, I. • Voltage drop, V. • Resistance, R = ? • Ans: V/I = R eg 2 Volts/1 Amp = 2 Ohms I Copper I V Normal conductor eg copper • Source of resistance: • Electron collides with lattice ion to produce heat (phonon). Copper lattice Lower Temperature • What happens when we cool a metal? • Ans 1: The electrons slow down and current is reduced maybe to zero. R→∞ • Ans 2: The lattice stops vibrating and resistance disappears. R=0 How do we cool things? • Commonly used liquid refrigerants: Element Boiling Pt Oxygen 90K Nitrogen 77K Hydrogen 20K Helium 4.2K Thomas Andrews, Chemist • 9 Dec 1813 – 26 Nov 1885 • John (Flax spinner, Comber) [ggfather] • Michael (Linen, Ardoyne) [gfather] • Thomas (Linen merchant) [father] • Studied under James Thomson, RBAI • 1828 Univ of Glasgow, Thos Thomson • 1830 Paris, Dumas • 1830-34 Trinity College Dublin • 1835 MD U of Edinburgh • 1835-45 Prof of Chemistry RBAI • 1845 Vice-President, Queen’s College • 1847 Prof of Chemistry, Queen’s College • 1869 Bakerian Lecture on CO 2 • 1871 Visit by Dr Janssen of Leiden • Photo: Paris 1875 Andrews’ Isotherms • Note critical temperature NORMAL CONDUCTOR: Electrical properties Normal metal eg copper Resistance and (resistivity, ρ) >0 As temperature falls ρ falls smoothly too: ρ 0 100 200 273.15 Temperature/K SUPERCONDUCTOR: Electrical properties Superconductor eg mercury, lead Resistivity ( ρ) >0 like normal metal down to critical temperature, Tc At Tc resistivity drops abruptly to zero ( ρ =0). Dramatic effect . First seen by Kamerlingh Onnes in Leiden on 8 April 1911 SUPERCONDUCTORS: Electrical resistivity of metals at room temperature Superconductors Non-superconductors • Al 2.74 X 10 -8 Ω-m • Cu 1.70 X 10 -8 Ω-m • In 8.75 • Ag 1.61 • Hg 95.9 • Au 2.20 • Pb 21.0 • Na 4.75 • Nb 14.5 • K 7.19 Question: • Source: C Kittel Introduction to Do you see any trend or tendency? Solid State Physics (5ed) p 170 SUPERCONDUCTORS: Cooper pairs Electrons pair off like hydrogen atoms in a molecule (H 2). Electrons pairs don’t scatter off anything (Cooper pairs). If you search the internet you may find dynamic illustrations. (Those shown below are a different understanding of the problem.) Superconductor: Cooper (electron) pair SUPERCONDUCTORS: Magnetic properties • Normal metals: only weakly (para)magnetic (Fig a) • Superconductors (below Tc): expel magnetic flux (except from a surface layer in which persistent screening currents flow). (diamagnetism) This is known as the MEISSNER Effect (Fig b)(1933) Above Tc they are like normal metals. SUPERCONDUCTORS: London Bros • Heinz and Fritz London, 1953 Cambridge, photo: K. Mendelssohn • Normal metal: J = E / ρ • Superconductor: J = - A / Λ SUPERCONDUCTORS: More magnetic properties Type I Examples: simple metals eg mercury, tin, lead, aluminium, indium Behaviour: perfect diamagnets up to critical field, H c. Lev Shubnikov 1936 Type II Examples: alloys eg solder and HTc’s (see below) Behaviour: perfect diamagnets up to lower critical field, H c1 . For H c1 <H<H c2 some magnetic flux penetrates as fluxlines ( Φ=h/2e). HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS • Alex Mueller and Georg Bednorz (IBM Zurich) 1986 found an oxide with T c around 35K and later Paul Chu (Houston) achieved 90K in a related material, YBa 2Cu 3O7-δ. Record 135K. SUPERCONDUCTORS: Theory I • 1934 Thermal properties: Gorter and Casimir • 1935 Electrical properties: Fritz and Heinz London • 1950 Magnetic properties (Types I/II): Ginzburg and Landau • 1957 Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS) gave comprehensive microscopic theory of conventional superconductors involving lattice vibrations. Nobel Prize Day 1972 • ? Theory of high temperature superconductors: maybe you? • ? Find room temperature superconductors: maybe you too? SUPERCONDUCTORS: Theory II Brian Josephson Showed theoretically that Cooper pairs can tunnel between two superconductors in weak contact. At the time he was a student. Thomas Andrews, Shipbuilder • 7 Feb 1873 – 15 Apr 1912 • Born Ardara House, Comber • Parents Thos ANDREWS and Eliza PIRRIE • Brother John Miller ANDREWS, PM NI • Brother James ANDREWS, L C Justice NI • 1884 – 1889 RBAI • 1889 -1912 H & W SUPERCONDUCTORS: Nobel Prizes 1913 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Matter at low temperature 1972 John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper, J. Robert Schrieffer Theory of superconductivity 1973 (Leo Esaki,) Ivar Giaever, Brian D. Josephson Tunneling in superconductors 1987 Georg Bednorz, Alex K. Müller High-temperature superconductivity 2003 Alexei A. Abrikosov, Vitaly L. Ginzburg(, Anthony J. Leggett) Pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids . SUPERCONDUCTORS : Websites • Try Google: Superconductor • http://www.superconductors.org • http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconductivity • http://www.ornl.gov/info/reports/m/ornlm3063r1/contents.html (A teacher’s guide, 1994) • http://teachers.web.cern.ch/teachers/archiv/HST2001/accelerato rs/superconductivity/superconductivity.htm • http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Maglev_train#Shan ghai_Maglev_Train • http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQUID • http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/solids/squid.html.
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