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Superconductivity Narratives The Players: The Applications: A nd the Future :. Graduate Students, Nobel and Ig Nobel prizes…. Subtitle: The Human side of “Table Top” Physics. Superfluidity and Superconductivity Associated with at Least Nine Nobel Prizes And Still counting ….
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Superconductivity NarrativesThe Players: The Applications: And the Future:
Graduate Students, Nobel and Ig Nobel prizes… Subtitle: The Human side of “Table Top” Physics
Superfluidity and Superconductivity Associated with at Least Nine Nobel PrizesAnd Still counting …
Nobel Laureates L. Landau and Phil Anderson And Possible Laureates….
Bardeen Cooper Schriefferdiscovered theory of superconductivity 1957 Electrons pair and do the Cooper pair “dance”
Brian Josephson DiscoveredQuantum Interference in Superconductors (Josephson Effect) 1964 Currently Runs Mind-Matter Unification Project
Osheroff, with Richardson and Lee discovered superfluid helium-3 in 1973
Bednorz and MullerDiscovered High Temperature Superconductors 1986
The Discovery of Higher Tc Superconductors and The Paul Chu Green Superconductor Saga
The “Woodstock” American Physical Society Meeting 1987 The Human side of Physicists --all night session on High Tc superconductivity
Transition temperature vs time Key Discovery: Superconducting transition temperatures above liquid nitrogen boiling temp– cheap coolant available
Highest Transition Temperature -189 F ! High-Temperature Superconductors (up to ~150K) Kelvin (K) Centigrade (oC) Fahrenheit (oF) Conventional Superconductors (up to ~-405 F) Boiling Water 212 100 373 Ice 32 0 273 Liquid nitrogen -290 -196 77 Absolute Zero -460 -273 0
WHAT IS SUPERCONDUCTIVITY?? For superconducting materials, the resistivity vanishes at some low temperature. Thus, superconductors can carry large amounts of current with no loss of energy.
What Else Can Superconductors Do ? • Expel magnetic fields: Meissner effect • Allow a current in a closed circuit to persist indefinitely.
The Meissner Effect Levitation of Sumo wrestler– Ig Nobel Prize Superconductors acquire a polarization OPPOSITE to an applied magnetic field. This is the reason that superconducting materials and magnets repel one another. If the temperature increases the sample will lose its superconductivity and the magnet cannot float on the superconductor.
What superfluids can do • Flow without viscosity • Dribble through molecule thin cracks • Climb up and over the sides of a dish • Remain motionless when the container is spun.
Applications using Superconductors MRI Body scanners Accelerator magnets Magnetometers for medicine, seismography … Transport Power transmission
Applications using Superconductors Transport In Jan 08, the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) announced that it plans to construct a second-generation maglev train that will run from Tokyo to central Japan. Cost ~ 44.7 billion dollars Completion in 2025 Speed ~ 500 kilometers per hour Length ~ 290 kilometers
Maglev train: Superconductivity at 500 km/hr Existing Japanese MagLev train • Yamanashi Test Site, Japan • 33 km long, >500 Km/hr • Segment of Tokyo-Osaka new line
Applications using Superconductors Superconducting power transmission - currently we waste ~ 20 % of our energy just transporting it around - potentially the next industrial revolution
MRI Uses Superconducting Magnets Closed (1-3 Tesla) and open (0.3T) MRI magnets both use Nb-Ti with a transition temperature (Tc) of only 9K, ~-450F. All are Cooled only by liquid helium until late 2006 .
Particle Accelerators Use Superconducting magnets Superconducting Tevatron energy-saver accelerator rings west of Chicago (Batavia, IL) Nb-Ti at 4.5 T, 4.2 K
Mont Blanc Large Hadron Collider-CERN Lake Geneva Switzerland 27 km Tunnel France
Some facts about the LHC Protons are accelerated to 99.999999991% of the speed of light The LHC lets us glimpse the conditions 1/100th of a billionth of a second after the Big Bang: a travel back in time by 13.7 billion years High energy collisions create particles that haven’t existed in nature since the Big Bang Find out what makes the Universe tick at the most fundamental level And find the Higgs boson!
LHC –Depends on Superconductivity 3286 HTS Leads
Applications of High-Temperature Superconductivity • Today: • Over 5,500 cell-phone towers contain high-temp SCs • 3 Prototype substations for power transmission in US • Other markets being developed
1911-2011 100 Years of Remarkable Progress Superconducting devices are pervasive in science and medical technologies • Frictionless current flow allows multiple applications. • Deep principles behind superconductivity (esp. High Tc superconductivity) to be discovered– more Nobel Prizes(?)
What do we dream of? • Materials that remain superconducting in any field. • Materials that carry enormous current densities so that we can make very powerful magnets. • Materials that are cheap to make, flexible in use, versatile in design and manufacture, strong, fracture resistant.
Superconductivity offers excellent science, excellent technology, excellent training and the possibility of saving the planet !! Summary
What Else Do We Dream of ? Even Better Super Conductors!