Superconductors

What is a Superconductor
A superconductor is an element, inter-metallic alloy or compound that, below a certain
temperature, will conduct electricity with no resistance. When a material is cooled to a
‘critical temperature’, which is usually close to zero kelvin, the electrical resistance seems to
vanish, and the material gains extraordinary magnetic properties. The critical temperature
varies between different elements; fig 1 shows what the critical temperature, Tc, is for
many various elements and compounds: you can see that different materials have different
critical temperatures.

Fig 1 The variation of the critical temperature for different materials

In a circuit with a regular conductor, energy is continuously being lost as heat. Once a
superconductor is cooled to be in its superconducting state, it is a perfect conductor and
assuming the circuit is continuous the current will run in the circuit for years, and no energy
will be lost. When a normal conductor, or a superconductor before it is in its
superconducting state, is placed in a magnetic field, the magnetic field will pass through it
uniformly. When the material is cooled enough to become a superconductor, the magnetic
flux is expelled from the material, and the field lines become distorted. There are no field
lines inside the material, this is known as the Meissner effect and is shown in fig 2.
Fig 2: What happens to the field lines in the Meissner effect

There are two classes of superconductor, type one and type two. When a magnetic field
gets too high, the superconducting state is destroyed, and a normal conducting state
returns. Initially, when the magnetic field is applied to the superconductor, the internal field
is zero, this is expected from the Meissner effect. If the magnetic field across a
superconductor is slowly increased there will be a sudden change and the superconductor
will stop expelling the magnetic field lines and it will return to its normal conducting state,
the magnetic field needed to do this is known as the critical magnetic field, and it varies for
each material. A superconductor that undergoes this sudden change is known as a type 1
superconductor.
A type 2 superconductor will respond differently to the applied magnetic field. Initially, the
magnetic field inside the superconductor will be zero; increasing the magnetic field has two
different effects, Bc1 and Bc2. At Bc1 the field starts to partially penetrate the
superconductor as the magnetic field is increased; however, the superconductivity is
maintained. However, when the magnetic field gets to a specific strength, like type one
superconductor, it returns to normal contacting behaviour. For Bc2 the point that the
superconductors superconductivity vanishes is much higher, resulting in the Meissner effect
being incomplete and allowing the superconductor to tolerate much higher magnetic fields
than before. Type 2 superconductors are the most useful as they can stay in the
superconducting state even in high magnetic fields.
Fig 3: Shows type 1 and type 2 superconductor behaviour

Earnshaw’s theorem states that there will never be a stable configuration of magnetic fields
that will trap other magnetic fields. If you place one magnet on top of the other, with
opposite poles facing, the magnet will not levitate instead it will fall off and flip, so the two
opposite ends attract to each other. When a small, strong permanent magnet is placed on
top of a superconductor, the magnet will levitate. This is because of the repulsion of the
magnetic field by the superconductor; even if you slightly push the magnet off the
superconductor, it will return to its original position. This effect occurs in type one and two
superconductors, but the effect in type two is more stable. Type two superconductors are
partially penetrated by a magnetic field; therefore there are some regions which do not act
like superconductors, instead conduct normally. The areas which act normally form thin
lines throughout the material, these lines generate their own electrical current known as
supercurrents. They are surrounded by superconducting material with no resistance which
means that they can adjust how they want as nothing is preventing them from changing. As
these supercurrents are generated inside the superconductor, they are not affected by
external magnetic fields, so when a magnet is brought close to the superconductor, the
currents produce magnetic poles which mirror the poles of the magnet which repels the
magnet causing it to levitate. If the magnet tries to move the currents adjust instantly to
keep the magnet levitating.

The BCS theory was the first microscopic level theory about how superconductors work, it
explains how superconductors are able to have perfect conductivity. As electrons pass
through a lattice, the positive nuclei are attracted to the electron and the lattice deforms
towards the centre generating sound packets called ‘phonons’. Another electron is attracted
to the phonon as it is more positively charged. This electron-phonon interaction forms a
cooper pair, a cooper pair is more stable than a single electron, which experiences less
resistance. A cooper pair is physically more resistant to vibrations in the lattice because the
pair stops it being so affected; therefore, Cooper pairs are more resistant to vibrations and
are relatively unaffected by any vibrations below the critical temperature. Figure 4 may help
your understanding of how a cooper pair is formed.
Fig 4: Formation of a cooper pair

History of Superconductors

Scientists were aware of the fact that if you increase the temperature of a conductor then
the resistance increases. This is because the positive nuclei in the wire have more kinetic
energy and vibrate more resulting in it being harder for the free electrons to travel, thus
increasing the resistance. However, before 1911, scientists did not know what happened
when the temperature was significantly decreased: would the resistance stop decreasing at
a certain temperature and level off, would it continue to decrease to zero resistance, or
would resistance start to increase at extremely cold temperatures? In 1911 Heike
Kamerlingh Onnes cooled Mercury down to 4 degrees Kelvin and observed that the
resistance vanishes; he then also observed that a current running through a superconductor
does not diminish over time and no energy is lost! He had just discovered the first
superconductor.

In 1933 Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld discovered that not only are
superconductors perfect conductors, but a superconducting material repels a magnetic field
which can go on cause a magnet to be levitated over the superconducting material, the
Meissner effect. In the 1950s John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and John Schrieffer came up with
the BCS theory. This was the first theory which explained superconductivity at a microscopic
level at low temperatures for elements and simple alloys.
In recent years, physicists have discovered high-temperature superconductors; these
materials behave as superconductors at much higher temperatures than normal
superconductors. Normal superconductors usually function below 20K so have to be cooled
with liquid helium, high-temperature superconductors have been as observed at
temperatures of 138K so can be cooled using liquid nitrogen which is much easier and
cheaper to obtain; therefore, using superconductors in the modern world has become a lot
more practical.

Uses of superconductors
Superconductors have become extremely useful in the modern world. MRI machines were
the first large scale commercial application of superconductors. MRIs are a non-invasive
medical scanning technique which produces a 2D image of inside the body. They work by
placing a part of the human body inside a uniform electromagnet with a high magnetic
field.; this causes the magnetic dipoles of the atomic nuclei to all line-up. For this to work a
magnetic field of around 1.5T is needed, this is hard to obtain as requires high currents and
large power requirements which results in a lot of energy being lost as the resistance is high
in the electromagnetic coils.
Using superconductors in an MRI machine is a much better alternative as they have no
resistance and once the electrical current is flowing the power supply can be switched off as
the wires form a loop for the current to continuously flow through assuming the material is
kept in the superconducting state. The only power required is to keep the system cool
enough to keep the material in the superconducting state.

A Magnetic levitation train, maglev train, can travel around 375mph and you could get from
NYC to LA in 7hours; as you can see maglev trains can revolutionise travel as we know it.
Maglev trains can travel so fast as there is no friction between the train and the tracks. The
train track is built from electromagnets, and the train carries the superconducting
electromagnets, the magnets are aligned in such a way that the train does not touch the
track and is constantly levitating. The electromagnets below repel or attract the
superconducting electromagnets on the train to accelerate or decelerate the train and
cause it to move forward.

Most electrical circuits use copper wire, which has resistance; a lot of energy is lost in
transition; It is estimated that 6% of America's electricity is lost and in developing countries
the statistics are worse, approximately 30% loss in India. This loss is causing tens of billions
of US dollars going to waste. High-temperature superconducting, HTS, power cables,
provide no electrical loss due to the lack of resistance in superconductors. The only cost is
keeping the wire cool enough to stay as a superconductor. HTS cables could save a lot of
money, increase the grid's efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint; all of the above
would highly benefit us in the future.

Conclusion
In conclusion, superconductors were an extremely significant scientific discovery and could
revolutionise the future of the planet. They have incredible magnetic properties and no
resistance which is unique to superconductors only; could help us save energy and reduce
our carbon footprint. The only issue with superconductors is that it is difficult to keep the
temperature low enough to keep them in the superconducting state; however, with further
research, this could be resolved.

Total: 1650 words

References:
• • http://www.supraconductivite.fr/en/index.php?p=applications-trains-
maglev-more
• • http://www.superconductors.org/History.htm
• • http://www.superconductors.org/oxtheory.htm
• • http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2000/igrant/bcstheory.html
• • https://www.toptenz.net/top-10-uses-of-superconductivity-powering-our-
future.php
• • https://www.britannica.com/science/superconductivity
• • http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Solids/coop.html
• • http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Solids/maglev.html#c1
• • http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~khachan/PTF/Superconductivity.pdf
• • https://www3.nd.edu/~vortex/Levitation.pdf

Image sources:
Fig 1: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~khachan/PTF/Superconductivity.pdf
Fig 2: https://clipground.com/meißner-ochsenfeld-effect-clipart.html
Fig 3: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~khachan/PTF/Superconductivity.pdf
Fig 4: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~khachan/PTF/Superconductivity.pdf