Superconductivity and Superconducting Materials

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

  • Discovery

  • Meissner effect

  • Theories

  • Conventional superconductors

  • Discovery of high temperature superconductors

  • Present situation in high T_c superconductor research

• Superconducting Properties and Measurements

  • DC resistivity

  • Specific heat

  • Thermoelectric effect and thermal conductivity

  • Superconducting circuits

  • Magnetic properties of superconductors - Meissner effect

  • Type I and Type II superconductors

  • T_c and J_c measurement - “Four point” method

    • T_c measurement

    • J_c measurement

  • The relations between T_c, J_c and H_c

• Theories of Superconductivity

• Conventional (Low-T_c) Superconductors

  • Pure elements

  • Alloys, intermetallics and chemical compounds

    • Solid solution alloys

    • Intermetallics

    • Chemical compounds

• High Temperature Superconductors

  • Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) superconductor system

    • Structure of Y123

    • Property of Y123

    • Processing of Y123

  • Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O (BSCCO) superconductor system

  • Tl-Ba-Ca-Cu-O (TlBCCO) superconductor system

  • Hg-Ba-Ca-Cu-O (HgBCCO) superconductor system

• Magnesium Diboride

• High Temperature Superconducting Thin Films

  • Techniques for thin film deposition

  • Substrate materials

  • Typical high temperature superconducting films

    • YBCO films

    • BSCCO films

    • TBCCO films

    • HgBCCO films

• Typical Application of Superconducting Materials

  • Superconductor magnets

  • Electric power utilities

    • Superconducting generators and motors

    • Power transmission

    • Energy storage

  • Transportation tools

  • Electronics and thin film applications

    • Josephson effect

    • SQUID

    • High performance computers