Superconductivity

All conductors resist the flow of charge at ordinary temperatures.

 At very low temperatures, most metal, many alloys and some

chemical compounds show Zero resistance. This phenomenon is
called superconductivity (SC).

SC was discovered in

1911 by Dutch physicist
Heike Kamerling Onnes.

 Critical temperature (TC)

TC for the other elements

varies from less than 0.1 K-
10 K.
Surprisingly, the ordinary good conductors (Ag and Cu) do not become
superconducting when cooled.

The highest critical temperatures obtained is 134 K in certain ceramic

materials.

Does superconductors have really zero resistance?

Yes. Currents have been set up in superconducting wire loops and the
resulting magnetic fields is monitored for years. No decrease in the
electrical current have ever been found.
 Effect of magnetic field on superconductivity
 If the magnetic field exceeds a certain critical value BC,
superconductivity disappears. This field BC is called as critical field.
BC depends on particular material and its transition temperature.
The value of critical field is maximum at 0 K.
Superconductor TC (K) BC(H=0) (T)
Al 1.18 0.0105
Hg 4.15 0.0411
In 3.14 0.0281
Pb 7.19 0.0803
Sn 3.72 0.0305
Zn 0.85 0.0054

For type I superconductors ,HC is quite low (less than 0.1 T). Because of
this reason Type I superconductors can’t be used for coils of strong
electromagnets.
Type II superconductors are usually alloys, and have intermediate state as well.

Such materials have two critical magnetic fields BC1, BC2.

For an applied field less than BC1, a Type II superconductor behaves just like type I
superconductor when B<BC. It is superconducting with no magnetic field in its
interior.

When B>BC2 a type II superconductor exhibit a normal behave like Type I

superconductor.

When BC1<B<BC2 a type II superconductor is

in the Mixed state in which it contains some
magnetic flux but superconducting
 Superconductor TC(K) BC2 (0) (T)
Nb3Sn 18.0 24.5
Nb3Ge 23.2 38
Nb3Al 18.7 32.4
Nb3(AlGe) 20.7 44
V3Ge 14.8 2.08
V3Si 16.9 2.35
PbMoS 14.4 6.0

A type II superconductor behaves as though it consists of filaments of normal and

superconducting matter mixed together.

 A magnetic field can exist in the normal filaments, while the superconducting
filaments are diamagnetic and resistanceless like Type I superconductors.

 Because BC2 can be quite high, type II superconductors are used to make high
field (up to 20 T) magnets.

 Particle accelerators, Fusion reactor, Magnetic resonance imaging, Trains ,

SQUIDS
 Meissner Effect
 Superconductors are perfect diamagnet i.e. no magnetic field can exist
inside them.
 If we put a superconductor in a magnetic field weaker than the critical
field and reduce the temperature below TC, the field is expelled from the
interior of the superconductor.
The current appears on the surface of the sample whose magnetic field
exactly cancel the original field inside it.

 Ordinary conductors does not

show Meissner Effect.
 Bound Electron Pairs
Theory of superconductivity was given by Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer
(BCS). It is also called as BCS theory.

Isotope effect: Critical temperature TC of the isotopes of a

superconducting element decreases with increasing masses.
e.g. 199Hg TC=4.161 K, 200Hg TC=4.126 K
This effect suggests that the current carrying electrons in the
superconductor do not move independent of ion lattice.

Leon Cooper showed that two electrons in a superconductor forms

a bound state despite their Coulomb repulsion.

Due to motion of electron in the lattice the positive ions in the

electron’s path displaced towards it as a result the lattice is
slightly deformed .
This deformation produces a region of increased positive charge. Another
electron moving through this polarized region will be attracted by the
greater concentration of positive charge there.

If attraction is stronger than the positive repulsion between the electrons,

the electrons are effectively coupled together into Cooper Pair with the
deformed lattice as a mediator.

The electron lattice interaction does not keep the electrons a fixed distance
apart . Theory suggests that Cooper Pair must be moving in opposite
directions, and their correlations may persists over lengths as great as 10-6
m.

The binding energy of the Cooper is defined as energy gap (Eg). It is of the
order of 10-3 eV and because of this reason superconductivity is a low
temperature phenomenon.
The energy gap in a superconductor can be measured by directing
microwave radiation of frequency ν at a superconductor. When hν≥kT
strong absorption occurs as the cooper pair breaks.

According to BCS theory, the energy

gap of a superconductor at 0 K is
related to its critical temperature as

E g (0)  3.53kTC

The electrons in the Cooper pair have

opposite spins, so the pair has total spin
of zero. Thus electron pair in a
superconductor are Bosons and any
number of them can exist in the same
quantum state at the same time.
When there is no current in the superconductor, the linear momentum
of the electrons in the Cooper pair are equal and opposite so that total
momentum is zero.

All the pairs are then in the same ground state and make up a giant
system i.e. the size of the superconductor.

A single wave-function represents this system, whose total energy is

less than that of the system of the same number of electrons with
Fermi energy distribution.