Superconductors and their applications

Electrical resistance
Using the flow analogy, electrical resistance is similar to friction. For
water flowing through a pipe, a long narrow pipe provides more
resistance to the flow than does a short fat pipe.

The same applies for flowing currents: long thin wires provide more
resistance than do short thick wires.
The resistance (R) of a material depends on its length, cross-sectional
area, and the resistivity (the Greek letter rho), a number that depends on
the material:

The resistivity and conductivity are inversely related.

The electrical resistance of a conductor is a measure of
how difficult it is to push the charges along.
A semi-conductor will only conduct in one direction. After a
certain amount of current is flowing, the voltage drop is
almost constant.

A condutor is like a simple wire. Current can flow in any

direction. There is a fairly low resistance.

A super condutor is a special material that at certain

temperatures (usually very cold) has zero resistance. There
are a lot of uses for this, some haven't be realized on a large
scale yet, and some have
 SUPERCONDUCTORS
• Superconductivity is a
phenomenon in certain
materials at extremely low
temperatures ,characterized by
exactly zero electrical
resistance and exclusion of the
interior magnetic field (i.e. the
Meissner effect)

Will be Discussed later on

• This phenomenon is nothing

but losing the resistivity
absolutely when cooled to
sufficient low temperatures.
 HOW WAS IT FORMED ?
• Before the discovery of the superconductors it was
thought that the electrical resistance of a conductor
becomes zero only at absolute zero

• But it was found that in some materials electrical

resistance becomes zero when cooled to very low
temperatures

• These materials are nothing but the SUPER

CONDUTORS.

Examples: Lead, niobium nitride

 WHO FOUND IT?
• Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 by Heike
Kammerlingh Onnes , who studied the resistance of solid mercury
at cryogenic temperatures using the recently discovered liquid
helium as ‘refrigerant’.

• At the temperature of 4.2 K , he observed that the resistance

abruptly disappears.
• For this discovery he got the NOBEL PRIZE in PHYSICS in
1913.
• In 1913 lead was found to super conduct at 7K.
• In 1941 niobium nitride was found to super conduct at 16K
 SUPERCONDUCTING MATERIALS
Superconductivity - The phenomenon of losing resistivity
when sufficiently cooled to a very low temperature (below a
certain critical temperature).
 H. Kammerlingh Onnes – 1911 – Pure Mercury

0.15

Resistance (Ω)
0.10

0.0
Tc
4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4

Temperature (K)
So finally

A superconductor is a material that can conduct

electricity or transport electrons from one atom to
another with no resistance.

This means no heat, sound or any other

form of energy would be released from
the material when it has reached
"critical temperature" (Tc), or the
temperature at which the material
becomes superconductive.
Unfortunately, most materials must be in an extremely low

energy state (very cold) in order to become superconductive.

Research is underway to develop compounds that become

superconductive at higher temperatures. Currently, an

excessive amount of energy must be used in the cooling

process making superconductors inefficient and

uneconomical.
Superconductors come in two different flavors:
Type-I
Transition Tempt (Tcs)
0.000325°K- and 7.8 °K
at standard pressure.
Type I
• Sudden loss of magnetisation
• Exhibit Meissner Effect
• No mixed state
• Soft superconductor
• Eg.s – Pb, Sn, Hg
Type II.
Much higher temperatures
when compared to type I
superconductors
Type II
• Gradual loss of magnetisation
• Does not exhibit complete
Meissner Effect
• Mixed state present
• Hard superconductor
• Eg.s – Nb-Sn, Nb-Ti
Type-I Superconductor
A type I superconductor consists of basic conductive
elements that are used in everything from electrical wiring
to computer microchips.
Some type I At present, type I
superconductors require superconductors have
incredible amounts of transition temperature (Tcs)
pressure in order to reach between 0.000325 °K and
the superconductive state. 7.8 °K at standard pressure.

One such material is sulfur which, requires a pressure of 9.4

x 1011 N/m2 and a temperature of 17 °K to reach
superconductivity.
Some other examples of type I superconductors include

Mercury - 4.15 °K,

Lead - 7.2 °K,

Aluminum - 1.175 °K

Zinc - 0.85 °K.

Roughly half of the elements in the periodic table are known

to be superconductive.
Type II Superconductors

A type II superconductor is composed of metallic

compounds such as copper or lead. They reach a
superconductive state at very much higher temperatures
when compared to type I superconductors.

The highest Tc reached at stardard pressure, to date, is 135

°K or -138 °C by a compound (HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8) that falls
into a group of superconductors known as cuprate
perovskites.
When cooled to sufficiently low temperatures, a large
number of metals and alloys can conduct electric current
without resistance. Obviously, these specific materials
undergo a phase transition to a new superconducting state
characterized by the complete loss of resistance below a
well defined critical temperature, TC.

Thus zero resistivity (ρ=0), i.e. infinite

conductivity is observed in a superconductor at all
temperatures below a critical temperature (ρ = 0 for
all T < TC ).
 Tc

Above Figure shows resistance versus temperature for a low-

temperature superconductor. At the transition temperature TC
the resistance drops abruptly to an unmeasurably small
value.
The critical temperature, TC varies from superconductor to
superconductor but lies between less than 1 K and
approximately 20 K for metals and metal alloys.

Until 1986 the maximum TC was observed in an alloy of

niobium, aluminium and germanium.

Recently it has been demonstrated that some complex

cuprate oxide ceramics have critical temperatures in excess
of 100 K.

Today, the highest known TC is 133 K for mercury based

cuprate oxide, HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8+δ. When this compound is
subjected to high pressure ~30 GPa, the onset of TC
increases to ~164 K.
The superconductors with TC < 25 K are called
conventional or low TC superconductors,

whereas

cuprate oxides and some other recently discovered

sunderconductors with TC > 25 K are termed as high
temperature superconductors (HTSC).
 Occurrence of Superconductivity
Superconducting Elements TC (K)
Sn (Tin) 3.72
Hg (Mercury) 4.15
Pb (Lead) 7.19
Superconducting Compounds
NbTi (Niobium Titanium) 10
Nb3Sn (Niobium Tin) 18.1
 MEISSNER EFFECT

In addition to resistanceless current transport, the

superconducting state is characterized by perfect
diamagnetism, i.e. B = 0 inside the superconductor.
The Meissner effect is the expulsion of a magnetic field from a
superconductor during its transition to the superconducting state.

Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld discovered the phenomenon

in 1933 by measuring the magnetic field distribution outside
superconducting tin and lead samples

Meissner effect

When the superconducting material is placed

in a magnetic field under the condition when
T≤TC and H ≤ HC, the flux lines are excluded
from the material.

Transition temperature is the temperature at which a material changes from one crystal
state (allotrope) to another. For example, when rhombic sulfur is heated above 96°C it
changes form into monoclinic sulfur. When cooled below 96°C it reverts to rhombic sulfur.
The magnetic inductance becomes zero inside the
superconductor when it is cooled below TC and the magnetic
flux is expelled from the interior of the superconductor.

This effect is called the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect after its

discoverers and it is the ultimate practical test in any new material.
Important to know:
There always exists some critical field, Hc, above which
superconductivity disappears. Superconductivity disappears
and the material returns to the normal state if one applies an
external magnetic field of strength greater than Hc.
 The samples, in the presence of an applied magnetic field, were
cooled below what is called their superconducting transition
temperature.

Below the transition temperature

the samples canceled nearly all
magnetic fields inside.

They detected this effect only indirectly; because the magnetic flux is
conserved by a superconductor, when the interior field decreased the
exterior field increased. The experiment demonstrated for the first
time that superconductors were more than just perfect conductors and
provided a uniquely defining property of the superconducting state.
 In a weak applied field, a
superconductor "ejects" nearly all
magnetic flux.
The magnetic field of these surface
currents cancels the applied
magnetic field inside the bulk of
the superconductor.
Therefore the conductivity can be
thought of as infinite: a
superconductor.
It does this by setting
up electric currents
near its surface.
Because the field
expulsion, or
cancellation, does not
change with time, the
currents producing
this effect (called
persistent currents) do
not decay with time.
So finally we can say that the major Conditions for
a material to be a superconductor

i. Resistivity ρ = 0

i. Magnetic Induction B = 0 when in an uniform

magnetic field
Characteristic Properties
of
Superconductors
(i) Zero Resistivity, i.e. Infinite Conductivity
( ρ= 0 for all T < TC): Electrical Resistance
The electrical resistance of a superconductor at all temperatures
below a critical temperature TC is practically zero.

If we assume the usual Ohm’s law (V = RI) describing the

superconducting state
Effect of Magnetic Field
(ii) Meissner-Ochsenfeld Effect (B = O inside
the superconductor):
The magnetic inductance becomes zero inside the
superconductor when it is cooled in a weak external field.
The effect is called the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect.

The superconducting metal always expels the field from its

interior, and has
The superconducting state of a metal exists only in a particular range of
temperature and field strength. The condition for the superconducting state to
exist in the metal is that some combination of temperature and field strength
should be less than a critical value.
Its important to know that the Superconductivity of the
metal will disappear if the temperature of the specimen is
raised above its TC, or if a sufficiently strong magnetic is
employed. There always exists some critical field Hc, above
which superconductivity disappears. Element HC at 0K
(mT)
Critical magnetic field (HC) – Nb 198
Pb 80.3
Minimum magnetic field required to
destroy the superconducting property Sn 30.9
at any temperature

  T 2 
H C  H 0 1    
  TC  
H0 – Critical field at 0K
T - Temperature below TC
TC - Transition Temperature
Thermal Properties of Superconductors
The thermal conductivity of superconductors undergoes
a continuous change between the two phases and usually
lower in a superconducting phase and at very low
temperatures approaches zero.

This suggests that the electronic contribution drops, the

superconducting electrons possibly plays no part in heat
transfer.

The thermal conductivity of tin (TC = 3.73 K) at 2 K is 16 W

cm–1 K–1 for the superconducting phase and 34 W cm–1K–1
for the normal phase.
 Applications
of
Superconductors
Application—1

Maglev (magnetic levitation) trains. These work because a

superconductor repels a magnetic field so a magnet will
float above a superconductor – this virtually eliminates the
friction between the train and the track. However, there are
safety concerns about the strong magnetic fields used as
these could be a risk to human health.

Levitation is the process by which an

object is suspended by a force against
gravity, in a stable position without solid
physical contact.

Yamanashi MLX01 train in Japan

Application---2

Large hadron collider or particle accelerator.

Superconductors are used to make extremely powerful
electromagnets to accelerate charged particles very fast (to
near the speed of light).

Application---3

SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interference

Devices) are used to detect even the weakest magnetic field.
They are used in mine detection equipment to help in the
removal of land mines.
Application---4

“E-Bombs”

The USA is developing “E-bombs”. These are devices that

make use of strong, superconductor derived magnetic fields
to create a fast, high-intensity electromagnetic pulse that can
disable an enemy’s electronic equipment.

These devices were first used in wartime in March 2003

when USA forces attacked an Iraqi broadcast facility. They
can release two billion watts of energy at once.
Application---5

Efficient Electricity Transportation

Superconductors have many uses - the most obvious being

as very efficient conductors; if the national grid were made
of superconductors rather than aluminium, then the savings
would be enormous - there would be no need to transform
the electricity to a higher voltage (this lowers the current,
which reduces energy loss to heat) and then back down
again.
Superconducting magnets are also more efficient in generating electricity than
conventional copper wire generators - in fact, a superconducting generator about half
the size of a copper wire generator is about 99% efficient; typical generators are
around 50% efficient.
 Summary of Applications

• Large distance power transmission (ρ = 0)

• Switching device (easy destruction of
superconductivity)
• Sensitive electrical equipment (small V variation 
large constant current)
• Memory / Storage element (persistent current)
• Highly efficient small sized electrical generator and
transformer
• E bombs
• SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices)
•
 Medical Applications
•NMR – Nuclear Magnetic Resonance – Scanning
•Brain wave activity – brain tumour, defective
cells
•Separate damaged cells and healthy cells
•Superconducting solenoids – magneto
hydrodynamic power generation – plasma
maintenance
Thanks