Vishwakarma University, Pune Chemistry Notes 2018-2019

SUPER CONDUCTORS
INTRODUCTION
Thus the phenomenon of Superconductivity was first discovered by the Dutch physicist Heike
Kamerlingh Onnes, in 1911, while studying the resistance of Hg at low temperatures. The
startling discovery made in 1911 was that as the temperature of a sample of Hg was reduced,
the resistance did not fall continuously as expected, but instead at around 4.2 K dropped
suddenly to zero over a range of a few hundredths of a degree. This phenomenon was termed
superconductivity and was found to occur for other elements such as Pb, Sn and Al at critical
temperatures between 4-10 K.
The measurement of superconductivity in mercury is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The resistance of mercury measured by Onnes.

The electrical resistance of mercury decreased steadily upon cooling, but dropped suddenly at
4.2 K, and became undetectably small. Soon after this discovery, many other elemental metals
were found to exhibit zero resistance when their temperatures were lowered below a certain
characteristic temperature of the material, called the critical temperature, Tc, some of which
are given in Figure 2.

Figure 2. The critical temperatures of some superconductors.

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Vishwakarma University, Pune Chemistry Notes 2018-2019

SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
Superconductivity is the ability of certain materials to conduct electrical current with no
resistance, i.e. R=0 and the materials which show this peculiar behavior usually at low
temperatures i.e. at less than 10 K (-263 °C) are called as Superconductors.
Thus, superconductors can carry large amounts of current with little or no loss of energy even
if there is no battery or other power source.
It can be explained by the formula of power loss:
Power loss (P) = V*I (voltage * Current)
= (I*R)* I (Since Voltage V= I*R)
= I2R
= 0
if there is no resistance (If R=0), there is no loss of power.
.

Properties which are not affected are elastic properties, thermal expansion behaviour
photoelectric properties and internal arrangement of crystal lattice. Properties which are
affected are Magnetic properties, Electrical properties (as the electrical resistivity tends to zero
at T=Tc). All thermo electric effects disappear for T < Tc, a discontinuous change in specific
heat and transition of latent heat.

In addition to the requirement that the temperature and magnetic field must be below some
value, there is also a limit on the current density in a superconducting material. Hence the
three critical values Tc, Hc and Jc, which are all interdependent are shown in figure, and a
material will only remain in the superconducting state within the volume shaded.

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Figure :Schematic of the regions of current density, magnetic field and temperature within
which a material remains superconducting.

THE MEISSNER EFFECT

In 1933, Walter Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld discovered that when a superconductor is
cooled in a magnetic field to below the value of transition temperature corresponding to that
field, then the lines of magnetic induction B are pushed out of the bulk superconductor.

Below figure illustrates the state of both the ideal conductor and superconductor above their
critical temperature, Tc. That is, they both are in a normal conducting state and have electrical
resistance. A magnetic field, Ba, is then applied. This results in the field penetrating both
materials. Both samples are then cooled so that the ideal conductor now has zero resistance. It
is found that the superconductor expels the magnetic field from inside it, while the ideal
conductor maintains its interior field.

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Vishwakarma University, Pune Chemistry Notes 2018-2019

TYPES OF SUPERCONDUCTORS

High magnetic fields destroy superconductivity and restore the normal conducting state.
Depending on the character of this transition, we may distinguish between type I and II
superconductors.
The graph shown in Figure illustrates the internal magnetic field strength, Bi, with increasing
applied magnetic field. It is found that the internal field is zero (as expected from the Meissner
effect) until a critical magnetic field, Bc, is reached where a sudden transition to the normal
state occurs. This results in the penetration of the applied field into the interior.
Superconductors that undergo this abrupt transition to the normal state above a critical
magnetic field are known as type I superconductors. Most of the pure elements in tend to be
type I superconductors.

Type II superconductors, on the other hand, respond differently to an applied magnetic field,
as shown in Figure. An increasing field from zero results in two critical fields, Bc1 and Bc2.
At Bc1 the applied field begins to partially penetrate the interior of the superconductor.
However, the superconductivity is maintained at this point. The superconductivity vanishes
above the second, much higher, critical field, Bc2. For applied fields between Bc1 and Bc2,
the applied field is able to partially penetrate the superconductor, so the Meissner effect is
incomplete, allowing the superconductor to tolerate very high magnetic fields.

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Vishwakarma University, Pune Chemistry Notes 2018-2019

Type I
These are superconductors which exhibit complete Meissner effect. There are 30 pure metals
which exhibit zero resistivity at low temperature. They are called Type I superconductors (Soft
Superconductors). The superconductivity exists only below their critical temperature and
below a critical magnetic field strength.

Type I Superconductors

Type II
These are superconductors which do not exhibit Meissner effect strictly. Starting in 1930 with
lead-bismuth alloys, were found which exhibited superconductivity; they are called Type II
superconductors (Hard Superconductors). They were found to have much higher critical fields
and therefore could carry much higher current densities while remaining in the superconducting
state.

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Vishwakarma University, Pune Chemistry Notes 2018-2019

BCS THEORY AND COOPER PAIRS

A microscopic theory of superconductivity was developed in 1957 by John Bardeen, Leon

Cooper and J. Robert Schrieffer, which is known as the BCS theory.
The central feature of the BCS theory is that two electrons in the superconductor are able to
form a bound pair called a Cooper pair if they somehow experience an attractive interaction
between them.
This notion at first sight seems counterintuitive since electrons normally repel one another
because of their like charges. This may be thought of in the following way and is illustrated in
Figure given below.

Figure: Classical description of the coupling of a Cooper pair.

An electron passes through the lattice and the positive ions are attracted to it, causing a
distortion in their nominal positions. The second electron (the Cooper pair partner) comes along

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Vishwakarma University, Pune Chemistry Notes 2018-2019

and is attracted by the displaced ions. Note that this second electron can only be attracted to
the lattice distortion if it comes close enough before the ions have had a chance to return to
their equilibrium positions. The net effect is a weak delayed attractive force between the two
electrons. This short lived distortion of the lattice is sometimes called a virtual phonon because
its lifetime is too short to propagate through the lattice like a wave as a normal phonon would.

From the BCS theory, the total linear momentum of a Cooper pair must be zero. This means
that they travel in opposite directions as shown in Figure.
When an external field is applied the cooper pairs thus formed are attracted towards the positive
terminal of the battery and due to tunnelling effect they move freely without any resistance and
conduction of electricity takes place.

APPLICATIONS:

1. Superconductors can be used to make a device known as a superconducting quantum

interference device (SQUID). This is incredibly sensitive to small magnetic fields so
that it can detect the magnetic fields from the heart (10-10 Tesla) and even the brain
(10-13 Tesla). As a result, SQUIDs are used in non-intrusive medical diagnostics on
the brain.
2. As superconductors are more efficient than conventional materials, significant energy
savings in the power generation and distribution industry may be made, with obvious
economic and environmental gains.
3. Also superconducting materials are often necessary for applications which require high
current densities, not obtainable using normal metals.
4. One potential application of HTS (High temperatures Superconductors) in the power
industry is in electrical generators.
5. Potential applications in energy storage are superconducting magnetic energy storage
(SMES) and superconducting flywheels. SMES works by storing energy in a magnetic
field produced by coils which carry a large superconducting d.c. current with no ohmic
losses. Such a machine would be useful for meeting diurnal variations in electricity
demand, or as an emergency power source. Superconducting flywheels use the
principle that a superconducting stator may be suspended in mid-air and thus spin with
incredibly low friction. Rotational kinetic energy can thus be stored and used to provide
power for short periods of time, during temporary faults. Such machines may presently
be manufactured using YBCO, but to be of practical use on a large scale, losses will
have to be reduced from those presently achievable. E
6. lectricity transmission and distribution Potential applications in the electricity
distribution industry are more promising. One use of a superconducting wire is to
produce a transmission cable – in urban areas, where large amounts of power must be
transmitted by underground cables, high current density is important and thus
superconducting wires are an attractive proposition. There is also interest in the
development of transformers, where superconducting materials would have several
advantages over those using conventional materials. The main benefit is that losses in
the windings are significantly reduced, allowing a reduction in the number of ampere
turns used. This leads to a significant reduction in the amount of magnetic flux and

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hence fewer iron core losses. The main practical advantage is a reduction in the physical
size and weight of the coils.
7. Another application of superconducting materials is the fault current limiter, which
uses the resistive transition to reduce the fault current in an electrical circuit.
8. There are a number of industrial applications based on the ability of superconductors to
provide very high field magnets. One such application is in magnetic separation and
filtration, which has been performed widely using conventional magnets for some time,
for example in the enrichment of ferromagnetic iron ores. For small particles which are
only weakly ferromagnetic or paramagnetic, much larger fields (and field gradients) are
needed for separation .
9. A high profile application of superconducting magnets is to facilitate high speed
levitating trains, where the advantages include speed, safety and environmental
benefits.
10. High field magnets are also of importance in research fields such as high energy
physics.
11. Particle detector magnets and accelerator beam guidance magnets are both ideally
served by superconductors. Notable examples of LTS materials in use at present include
the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and the TEVATRON in the US.
12. A major market for superconducting materials is magnets for magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI), primarily for medical diagnostics.
13. As with most other applications, commercial superconducting systems are still based
on NbTi. Whilst experimental systems have been built using HTS materials.

HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS

Bednorz and Muller synthesised the compound La2CuO4 which remains superconducting up
to 30 K, and soon afterwards other superconducting cuprate materials were discovered with
even higher transition temperatures. YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) has a Tc of 92 K , which is
significant because it is greater than the boiling point of liquid nitrogen at atmospheric pressure.
Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O, Tl-Ba-Ca-Cu-O [22] and Hg-Ba-Ca-Cu-O compounds have higher critical
temperatures.
Transition temperatures of some high Tc superconducting compounds are as follows
Material Tc (K)
YBa2Cu3O7-δ : 92
Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 : 85
Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 :110
TlBa2Ca2Cu3O9 : 123
HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8 : 135
All these high temperature superconductors have highly anisotropic crystal structures,
containing layered CuO2 planes in which the superconducting charge carriers are thought to
be localised.

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Vishwakarma University, Pune Chemistry Notes 2018-2019

Figure Unit cell of a) YBa2Cu3O7 and b) YBa2Cu3O7-δ. The dashed circles indicate oxygen
sites which are partially filled .