COURSE
CONTENT (22.5h)
Superconductivity Historical Milestones
Fundamental Phenomena Associated with Superconductivity : resistivity, Meissner, specific heat, type I and type II superconductors, magnetization curves, thermodynamic properties, thermal transport and thermoelectric properties, isotope effect, …
Overview of main applications : superconducting magnets (magnetic resonance imaging, maglev trains, particle accelerators, magnetic confinement, ...); power transmission , SQUID magnetometer, … & appropriate materials for these practical applications
Description of Superconductivity : London, BCS and Ginzburg-Landau theories, quantization of magnetic flux in a superconducting ring, characteristic lengths of superconductivity
Type II Superconductors : characteristics of the mixed state: vortex structure and vortex lattice, energetic aspects, screening currents and transport currents, critical current in type I & type II superconducting materials, energy dissipation in the mixed state, pinning of the vortices
Superconductor junctions : Quantum tunneling in superconductor junctions, dc and ac Josephson effects, Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID)
Small specimen and superconductivity at the nanoscale : particular geometries (thin films, cylinders, …), Little – Parks effect, appearance of superconductivity at nanoscale, size effects on critical temperature and critical field, influence of disorder, vortex matter at nanoscale – influence of sample size and shape, artificial vortex pinning center arrays, superconducting nanowire single photon detector
LABORATORY (7.5h)
The goal is also to introduce students to laboratory experiments and to observe and perform practical tasks related to the subject matter of this course.
During the lab activity (7.5h), the students will investigate the physical properties of high Tc superconductors, including the temperature variation of electrical resistivity, the determination of critical temperature, critical magnetic fields, coherence length, …
- Enseignant: Piraux Luc