Construct · 1 fields · 3 citations

superconductivity: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

● anchor · a standalone construct Nearest construct by meaningMeissner effectcompare the meanings
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superconductivity1 CONSTRUCTSuperconductivityONNES · ZERO RESISTANCE

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Condensed Matter Physics

Zero-resistance quantum state of matter below a critical temperature

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes reported superconductivity in 1911, when he cooled mercury with liquid helium and found that its electrical resistance vanished completely below about 4.2 kelvin, so a current once started in a superconducting loop would in principle circulate indefinitely without any driving voltage. In 1933 Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld showed that a superconductor also expels magnetic fields from its interior as it is cooled through its critical temperature, the Meissner effect, which established that superconductivity is a distinct thermodynamic state of matter and not merely perfect conductivity. A microscopic explanation followed in 1957, when John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer proposed the BCS theory, in which electrons near absolute zero bind into pairs (Cooper pairs) through a weak attraction carried by vibrations of the atomic lattice, then condense into a single coherent quantum state that flows without scattering. Superconductivity is distinctive as a macroscopic quantum phenomenon: it is defined jointly by exactly zero direct-current resistance and by the expulsion of magnetic fields, each appearing only below a material-specific critical temperature, critical magnetic field, and critical current.[1][2][3]

Unit
A thermodynamic phase of a material, defined by zero DC electrical resistance and magnetic-field expulsion below critical thresholds
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Identified by electrical resistance falling to zero and magnetic flux being expelled below a measured critical temperature, critical magnetic field, and critical current

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Nearby constructs

Meissner effect1 fields · 3 citationsanchor · a standalone constructresistance4 fields · 7 citationsjingle · one word, four constructs

References

  1. Kamerlingh Onnes, H. (1911). Further experiments with liquid helium. C. On the change of electric resistance of pure metals at very low temperatures, etc. IV. The resistance of pure mercury at helium temperatures. Communications from the Physical Laboratory of the University of Leiden, 120b.
  2. Meissner, W., & Ochsenfeld, R. (1933). Ein neuer Effekt bei Eintritt der Supraleitfähigkeit. Die Naturwissenschaften, 21(44), 787–788. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01504252
  3. Bardeen, J., Cooper, L. N., & Schrieffer, J. R. (1957). Theory of superconductivity. Physical Review, 108(5), 1175–1204. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.108.1175

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