Super Conductors

What is super conductivity?

Why we need it?
Where it is applied?

Super Conductivity:
Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance and
expulsion of magnetic fields occurring in certain materials when cooled
below a characteristic critical temperature.
Electrical resistivity of a metallic conductor decreases gradually as
temperature is lowered.
Conductor whose resistance drops to abruptly zero ohms at its critical
temperature is called as Super conductors.
It is quantum mechanical phenomenon.
Characterized by Meissener effect, the complete ejection of magnetic field
lines from the interior of the conductors as it transitions into the
superconducting state.
Discovered by Dutch physisct Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911.

Classification:
Response to magnetic field
By theory of operation
By critical temperature
By material

Magnetic field:
Type 1 it has single critical field above which all
superconductivity is lost.
Type 2-it has two critical field between which it allows
partial penetration of magnetic field.

By theory of operation:
Conventional explained by BCS theory
Non conventional-cant be expalined by BCS theory
BCS theory:
BCS theory is the first microscopic theory of superconductivity since
its discovery in 1911. The theory describes superconductivity as a
microscopic effect caused by a condensation of Cooper pairs into a
boson-like state. The theory is also used in nuclear physics to
describe the pairing interaction between nucleons in an atomic
nucleus. It was proposed by John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John
Robert Schrieffer ("BCS") in 1957; they received the Nobel prize in
physics for this theory in 1972.

conventional superconductors:
Conventional superconductors are materials that display
superconductivity as described by BCS theory or its
extensions. This is in contrast to unconventional
superconductors, which do not. Conventional
superconductors can be either type-I or type-II.
Most elemental superconductors are conventional.
Niobium and vanadium are type-II, while most other
elemental superconductors are type-I. Critical
temperatures of some elemental superconductors:

elt

Tc

Al

1.2
0

Hg

4.1
5

Mo

0.9
2

Nb

9.2
6

Pb

7.1
9

Sn

3.7
2

Zn

0.8
8

By critical temperature:
A superconductor is generally considered high
temperature if it reaches a superconducting state when
cooled using liquid nitrogen that is, at only Tc > 77 K)
or low temperature if more aggressive cooling
techniques are required to reach its critical
temperature.

By material:
Superconductor material classes include chemical
elements (e.g. mercury or lead), alloys (such as
niobium-titanium, germanium-niobium, and niobium
nitride), ceramics (YBCO and magnesium diboride), or
organic superconductors (fullerenes and carbon
nanotubes; though perhaps these examples should be
included among the chemical elements, as they are
composed entirely of carbon).

Covalent superconductors:
Covalent superconductors are superconducting materials where the
atoms are linked by covalent bonds. The first such material was
synthetic diamond grown by the high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT)
method.[1] The discovery had no practical importance, but surprised
most scientists as superconductivity had not been observed in Diamond
Examples:
Diamond
Silicon
Silicon carbide
Carbon nano tubes
Intercalated graphite

Carbon nano tubes:

 Allotrophe of carbon with cylindrical nano structure

Properties:
High electrical conductivity
High tensile strength
Very elastic and low thermal coeff.
High thermal conductivity &large aspect
ratio(length=1000*dia)

Gen apps:

 Nobel Prizes for superconductivity

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1913), "for his investigations on the properties of matter at
low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium"

John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper, and J. Robert Schrieffer (1972), "for their jointly
developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory"

Leo Esaki, Ivar Giaever, and Brian D. Josephson (1973), "for their experimental
discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors,
respectively," and "for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent
through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as
the Josephson effects"

Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Mller (1987), "for their important break-through in the
discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials"

Alexei A. Abrikosov, Vitaly L. Ginzburg, and Anthony J. Leggett (2003), "for pioneering
contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids"