Superconductivity

Dr. Mukesh Chandra

Physics and Material Science
Jaypee University Anoopshahr
Bulandshahr, UP
 Superconductvity
 Superconductivity: Certain materials show zero
electrical resistance when cooled below a characteristic
critical temperature(Tc).
 Dutch physicist H. K. Onnes named this phenomenon
as superconductivity.
 Superconductivity is a quantum mechanical
phenomenon, like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral
lines etc.
 It is characterized by the Meissner effect, the complete
ejection of magnetic field lines from the interior of the
superconductor as it transitions into the
superconducting state (Perfect diamagnet).
 History of superconductivity
 Superconductivity was discovered(1911) by Heike Kamerlingh
Onnes, who liquified Helium gas in 1908. He was studying the
resistance of solid mercury and many other metals at cryogenic
temperatures using the liquid helium (boiling point = 4.2K) as a
refrigerant.
 At the temperature of 4.2 K, he observed that the resistance of Hg
(Mercury) abruptly disappeared.
 Meissner and Ochsenfeld discovered(1933) that superconductors
expelled applied magnetic fields, a phenomenon which has come
to be known as the Meissner effect.
 The disappearance of electrical resistivity was modelled in terms
of electron pairing in the crystal lattice by John Bardeen, Leon
Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer in what is commonly called the
BCS theory(1957).
 Temperature dependence of resistivity in
superconducting materials
• Metals are good conductor due to free electrons
• Still those have residual resistance even at 0K, means their
resistance is never zero
Variation of resistivity with temperature

Critical Temperature: It is the temperature at which a normal

conductor turns into superconductor, denoted by TC
Critical temperatures of some materials

Element and Critical

compounds Temperature(K)
Tungusten 0.01
Aluminium 1.19
Mercury 4.15
Niobium 9.46
Nb3Al 17.5
Nb3 18.05
Nb3Ge 23
La-Ba-Cu-O 34K

Till 1977, the highest Tc was 23K for

Nb3Ge alloy
Effect of Magnetic Field on
superconductivity
 Superconductivity is destroyed above a certain
magnetic field (HC)
 The minimum magnetic field required to lose the
superconductivity in a material is called critical
magnetic field HC
 For existence of superconducting state there must be a
combination of Tc and Hc
 A relation between Hc and TC is given by:

 T  2
H C (T )  H C (0) 1  2  .........(1)
 Tc 

Where Hc(T) is the maximum critical field strength at

temperature T, Hc (0) is the maximum critical field
strength occurring at absolute zero(characteristic of a
material) and Tc is the critical temperature.
In general, higher the value of Tc, The higher is the value of
Hc for a superconductor
 Critical Current( IC)
 The maximum current that can be passed though a
superconductor, without destroying its superconductivity . It is
denoted by IC.
 Huge amounts of current through a superconductor result in
creation of a magnetic field circling around it (Ampere's law). A
superconductor also expels all magnetic fields from inside itself
(Meissner effect), so a lot of magnetic field lines all bunched up
just outside the surface of the superconductor, which makes a
strong magnetic field there.
 Magnetic fields kill superconductivity. So this high magnetic field
produced by the current will be too much for the superconductor
to handle, and it will "quench", which means it abruptly stops
superconducting nature, and then the energy in the flowing
current is very rapidly turned into heat.
 Persistent current
 Persistent current is a perpetual electrical current, not
requiring an external power source. In superconductors,
charge can flow without any resistance. It is possible to
make pieces of superconductor with a large built-in
persistent current, either by creating the superconducting
state (cooling the material) while charge is flowing through
it, or by changing the magnetic field around the
superconductor after creating the superconducting state.
 This principle is used in superconducting electromagnets to
generate sustained high magnetic fields that only require a
small amount of power to maintain.
 Meissner Effect
The Meissner effect is an
expulsion of a magnetic field
from a superconductor
during its transition to the
superconducting state.

Important Points:
• Meissner effect is reversible.
• A superconductor is a perfect diamagnetic
(magnetic susceptibility, χ = -1).
Magnet floats on a superconducting disk –
Meissner effect
 Type of Superconductors
Superconductors are classified in two types,
according to their magnetic behaviour
1. Type I or soft Superconductors
2. Type II or Hard Superconductors

Type-I superconductors:
 There is a sharp transition from superconducting to
normal state, when the strength of the applied field
rises above a critical value Hc.
 This type of superconductivity is normally exhibited by
pure metals, e.g. aluminium, lead, and mercury etc.
 The critical field value Hc for type-I superconductors
is very low( few oersted).
Type II or Hard Superconductors

Normal state

VS or
Vortex

SS

SS- Superconducting state

VS- Vortex State
NS – Normal State
Type-II superconductors:
• It exhibit two critical magnetic fields (HC1 and HC2), and
the transition takes place gradually from normal state to
superconducting state.

• Between HC1 to HC2 the specimen is assumed to be in a

mixed state(intermediate state), which is called the
vortex state.

• Application of Type II superconductors: strong field

superconducting magnets.

• Type-II superconductors are usually made of metal alloys

or complex oxide ceramics. All high temperature
superconductors are type-II superconductors.
 Difference between type-I and type-II superconductors
Type-I or soft
1. Type I superconductors are also known as soft superconductors
because of this reason that is they loose their superconductivity easily
2. They have low critical field.
3. They Show complete Meissner effect.
4. The current flows through the surface only.
5. Eg. Aluminum (Hc = 0.0105 Tesla), Zinc (Hc = 0.0054)
Hard Superconductors (Type II) :
1. Type II superconductors known as hard superconductors because o
this reason that is they loose their superconductivity gradually but no
easily.
2. They have high critical field.
3. Hard super conductors trap magnetic flux and hence Meissner effe
is not complete.
4. It is found that current flows throughout the material.
5. Eg. Tantalum, Neobium , NbN (Hc = 8 x 106 Tesla), BaBi3 (Hc = 59 x 103 Tesla)
 Explanations for superconductivity

1. London’s Theory(1935): London theory is macroscopic

and based on ideas of two fluid model, according to
which a superconductor can be thought to be composed
of both normal and superfluid electrons. According to
London’s theory, it is assumed that there are two types of
conduction electrons in a superconductor, namely, the
super electrons and normal electrons
2. Ginzburg and Landau (1950): Semiphenomenological
theory
3. BCS Theory (1957): Microscopic theory, more acceptable
London Equations
 As discussed in the Meissner effect that one of the conditions
of the superconducting state is that Magnetic flux density (B)
= 0 inside the superconductors that is the magnetic flux
cannot penetrate inside the superconductor.
 But experimentally it is not so. The magnetic flux does not
suddenly drop to zero inside the surface. The phenomenon of
flux penetration inside the superconductors was explained by
H. London and F. London.
Derivation of London first equation:
Let ns and vs be the number density (number/volume) and velocity of
superconducting electrons respectively. The equation of motion or
acceleration of electrons in the superconducting state is given by
m(dvs/dt) = -eE
or dvs/dt = -eE/m (1)
where ‘m’ is the mass of electrons and e is the charge on the electrons.
Also the current density is given by
Js = -nsevs
Differentiate it with respect to time,
dJs/dt = -nse(dvs/dt)
Put equation (1) in above equation, we get
dJs/dt = (nse2 E)/m
dJ ns e 2
Equation (2) is known as London’s first equation  E.......(2)
dt m
 Derivation of London Second equation:
Take curl (that is cross or vector product of del operator with a vector) of
London’s first equation, we get
dJ s ns e 2
    E.......(3)
dt m
By differential form of Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction (or Maxwell’s
third equation) dB
 E   .......(4)
dt
Put this in equation (3), we get dJ s ns e 2 dB
  .......(5)
dt m dt
Integrate both sides with respect to time, we get
ns e 2 B
 Js   .......(6)
m
This is known as London’s second equation.
London Penetration Depth(λ)
 The characteristic length, λ, associated with the decay of the
magnetic field at the surface of a superconductor is known as
the penetration depth, and it depends on the number
density of superconducting electrons.
 It can be found from solution of London second equation.
 We can estimate a value for λ by assuming that all of the free
electrons are superconducting. If we set ns=1019/m3, a
typical free electron density in a metal, then we find that
In superconductors, the London penetration depth (usually denoted as
λ {\displaystyle \lambda }
or
λ L {\displaystyle \lambda _{L}}
) characterizes the distance to which a magnetic field penetrates into a
superconductor and becomes equal to
e {\displaystyle e}
−1 times that of the magnetic field at the surface of the superconductor.[1]
Typical values of λL range from 50 to 500 nm.
 Temperature dependence of λ
 According to the London model, the penetration depth increases as
the temperature approaches the critical temperature, becoming
effectively infinite – corresponding to a uniform field in the
material – at and above the critical temperature. Figure 16 shows
this temperature dependence for tin, which is well represented by
the expression

where λ(0) is the value of the penetration

depth at T = 0 K.
 The penetration depth λ as a function of temperature for tin (Sn)

The small size of λ indicates that the magnetic field is effectively

excluded from the interior of macroscopic specimens of
superconductors, in agreement with the experimentally observed
Meissner effect.
BCS theory of Superconductivity
(Bardeen, Cooper, Schrieffer)
 It is a microscopic theory (known as BCS theory) to
explain the phenomenon of superconductivity.

 A pair of free electrons coupled though a phonon is

called a Cooper pair.

 The theory describes superconductivity as a

microscopic effect caused by a condensation of Cooper
pairs into a boson-like state.

 In the normal state of a metal, electrons move

independently, whereas in the BCS state, they are
bound into Cooper pairs by the attractive interaction.
 The electron-phonon interaction/
Cooper pairs
 Polarization of the lattice by one
electron leads to an attractive
potential for another electron.
 At lower temperature, when
an electron comes near the
positive ion core of the
lattice, then an electron
experiences an attractive
force. Due to interaction
between electron and ion
A lattice is regarded as an array
core, the ion core is slightly of atoms connected by elastic
displaced. This is known as springs, and the vibrations in
lattice distortion. This these mechanical wave have
distortion travels as a energy which is known as
mechanical wave(phonons). phonons.
 The electron-phonon interaction /
Cooper pairs

 Polarization of the lattice by one electron leads to an attractive

potential for another electron.
 The phonon interacts with another electron, and there is attraction
between second electron and phonon(distorted lattice)
 This process is called electron-lattice-electron interaction via a
phonon field (mechanical waves).
The process which binds two electrons into a Cooper pair. It is an
interaction between the two electrons, which are in initial states
with wave-vectors k1 and k2, by exchange of a virtual phonon of
wave-vector q. The electrons go into new states k1’ and k2’
• These two electrons with wave vectors k1+q and k1-q, forms
the cooper pair and known as cooper electrons.
• So Cooper pair is a bound pair of electrons formed by the
interaction between the electrons in a phonon field.

• If an electric field establishes inside the substance, the

electrons gets kinetic energy (KE) and they give current. The
pair of electrons does not transfer any energy to lattice, so they
dont get slow down, so no resistance.

• When the pair of electrons flows in form of

Cooper pair, they do not encounter any
scattering, and the resistance factor vanishes.
i.e. Conductivity becomes infinity, which is
named as superconductivity.
Coherence Length
 The maximum distance upto which the states of pair
electrons are correlated to produce superconductivity is
called coherence length.
The superconducting coherence length, usually denoted
as ξ (Greek lowercase xi),
 Successes of the BCS theory
 BCS theory predicts the dependence of the value of the energy gap
E (binding energy of cooper pair) at temperature T on the critical
temperature Tc.
E  3.52 K BTC [1  ( T )]
where KB is Boltzmann constant. Tc
 At T= Tc, the band gap disappears.
 BCS theory correctly predicts the Meissner effect, i.e. the
expulsion of a magnetic field from the superconductor and the
variation of the penetration depth (the extent of the screening
currents flowing below the metal's surface) with temperature
 The BCS theory reproduces the isotope effect, which is the
experimental observation that for a given superconducting
material, the critical temperature is inversely proportional to the
mass of the isotope used in the material. (Tc α M-1/2)
Josephson Tunnelling
 A Josephson junction is made by sandwiching a thin layer of a
nonsuperconducting material between two layers of
superconducting material.
 The devices are named after Brian Josephson, who predicted
in 1962 that pairs of superconducting electrons could "tunnel"
right through the nonsuperconducting barrier from one
superconductor to another. He also predicted the exact form
of the current and voltage relations for the junction.
 Experimental work proved that he was right, and Josephson
was awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work.
 Electronic circuits can be built from Josephson junctions,
especially digital logic circuitry. Many researchers are
working on building ultrafast computers using Josephson
logic.
 Josephson junctions can also be fashioned into circuits called
SQUIDs--an acronym for superconducting quantum
interference device. These devices are extremely sensitive
and very useful in constructing extremely sensitive
magnetometers and voltmeters. For example, one can make a
voltmeter that can measure picovolts. That's about 1,000
times more sensitive than other available voltmeters.
High Temperature (High Tc )Superconductors
(HTSC)

 Upto 1886 most of materials discovered had Tc below 30K

 In 1986- A. Muller and G. Bednorz (Switzerland) discovered
superconductivity in oxides (YBa2Cu3O7 has Tc around 90K)
also known as 1-2-3 superconductor
 (HgBaCuO), which has Tc = 134K.
 They got noble prize for it in 1987
 High temperature superconductors are all type-II
superconductors and with High Hc values
 They are brittle and difficult to prepare wires from them, can
not carry high currents and unstable for long periods.
 Still lot of research is going for superconductor working at
room temperature
Tc of some superconductors
Superconductors
 Material Tc(K)
Nb3Ge 23.2
BaBiO3 30
Tl2Ba2Ca2Cu3O 125
1
YBa2Cu3O7-x 93
MgB2 39
Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O6 110
HgBa2Ca2Cu3O 134
8

Most high temperature superconductors have copper

oxide layers, and have perovskite crystal structure
Applications of Superconductors
1. Superconducting Magnets (For creating
very strong fields, NMR magnets etc)

•Electromagnets are made by superconducting wires/cables.

•Nb-Ti wire is generally used
•Used in many experimental and superconducting magnets
 2. Power Transmission
(Superconducting cable)

• Electricity has become an essential

energy source in our modern lives.
• Today’s power cables can however only
carry limited currents; otherwise they
would heat and melt.
• A network of superconducting power
cables would solve these problem In France, around
because 1000 times more electric 600m cable
current can flow through them: smaller
cables with more current.
2. Maglev Vehicles(Trains)

•Maglev (derived from magnetic levitation) is a method of propulsion that

uses magnetic levitation to propel vehicles with magnets rather than with
wheels, axles and bearings. With maglev, a vehicle is levitated a short
distance away from a guide way using magnets to create both lift and thrust.
High-speed maglev trains promise dramatic improvements for human travel.
•Already running in Japan and Germany etc..
 3. Medical Applications(MRI)

• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

(NMRI), or magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) is a medical imaging
technique used in radiology to investigate the anatomy and function of the
body in both health and disease.
• Superconducting magnets are used for creating high magnetic fields
4. SQUIDS (superconducting quantum
interference device)

•A SQUID (for superconducting quantum interference

device) is a very sensitive magnetometer used to
measure extremely subtle magnetic fields
•SQUIDs are sensitive enough to measure fields as low
as 5 aT (5×10−18 T) within a few days of averaged
measurements
5. Computers and circuits

(High Tc )

Superconducting wires can be used in

electronic circuits
 Quantum Computers
 Quantum computing tends to trace its roots back to a 1959
speech by Richard P. Feynman in which he spoke about
the effects of miniaturization, including the idea of
exploiting quantum effects to create more powerful
computers. (This speech is also generally considered the
starting point of nanotechnology.)
 Quantum Bits (Qubit)
 Definition: A qubit is a term from the nascent field of quantum
computing which is a shortened form of the term "quantum bit." A
traditional computer bit can store information in states of either 1 or 0
("on" or "off"), while a quantum bit can store information in states of
1, 0, and as a combination of both states simultaneously due to
quantum superposition.
 A quantum computer designed to use qubits to store and process
information would be able, in theory, to process information much
more quickly than a traditional computer, using a process known
as quantum parallelism.
 Difficulties with Quantum Computers
 The quantum computer's main drawback is the same as its strength:
quantum decoherence. The qubit calculations are performed while the
quantum wave function is in a state of superposition between states,
which is what allows it to perform the calculations using both 1 & 0
states simultaneously.
 However, when a measurement of any type is made to a quantum
system, decoherence breaks down and the wave function collapses
into a single state.
 The physical requirements of manipulating a system on this scale are
considerable, touching on the realms of superconductors,
nanotechnology, and quantum electronics, as well as others. Each of
these is itself a sophisticated field which is still being fully developed,
so trying to merge them all together into a functional quantum
computer is a task