9.6 Superconductors  (Page 2/11)

A large jump was seen in 1986, when a team of researchers, headed by Dr. Ching Wu Chu of Houston University, fabricated a brittle, ceramic compound with a transition temperature of $T_{\text{c}}=92\text{K}\left(\mathrm{-181}\text{°}\text{C}\right)$ . The ceramic material, composed of yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO), was an insulator at room temperature. Although this temperature still seems quite cold, it is near the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, a liquid commonly used in refrigeration. You may have noticed refrigerated trucks traveling down the highway labeled as “Liquid Nitrogen Cooled.”

YBCO ceramic is a material that could be useful for transmitting electrical energy because the cost saving of reducing the $I^{2}R$ losses are larger than the cost of cooling the superconducting cable, making it financially feasible. There were and are many engineering problems to overcome. For example, unlike traditional electrical cables, which are flexible and have a decent tensile strength, ceramics are brittle and would break rather than stretch under pressure. Processes that are rather simple with traditional cables, such as making connections, become difficult when working with ceramics. The problems are difficult and complex, and material scientists and engineers are coming up with innovative solutions.

An interesting consequence of the resistance going to zero is that once a current is established in a superconductor, it persists without an applied voltage source. Current loops in a superconductor have been set up and the current loops have been observed to persist for years without decaying.

Zero resistance is not the only interesting phenomenon that occurs as the materials reach their transition temperatures. A second effect is the exclusion of magnetic fields. This is known as the Meissner effect    ( [link] ). A light, permanent magnet placed over a superconducting sample will levitate in a stable position above the superconductor. High-speed trains have been developed that levitate on strong superconducting magnets, eliminating the friction normally experienced between the train and the tracks. In Japan, the Yamanashi Maglev test line opened on April 3, 1997. In April 2015, the MLX01 test vehicle attained a speed of 374 mph (603 km/h).

[link] shows a select list of elements, compounds, and high-temperature superconductors, along with the critical temperatures for which they become superconducting. Each section is sorted from the highest critical temperature to the lowest. Also listed is the critical magnetic field for some of the materials. This is the strength of the magnetic field that destroys superconductivity. Finally, the type of the superconductor is listed.

There are two types of superconductors. There are 30 pure metals that exhibit zero resistivity below their critical temperature and exhibit the Meissner effect, the property of excluding magnetic fields from the interior of the superconductor while the superconductor is at a temperature below the critical temperature. These metals are called Type I superconductors. The superconductivity exists only below their critical temperatures and below a critical magnetic field strength. Type I superconductors are well described by the BCS theory (described next). Type I superconductors have limited practical applications because the strength of the critical magnetic field needed to destroy the superconductivity is quite low.