Superconductivity

A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor, cooled with liquid. Persistent electric current flows on
the surface of the superconductor, acting to exclude the magnetic field of the magnet (the Faraday’s). This current
effectively forms an electromagnet that repels the magnet.

A high-temperature superconductor levitating above a magnet

Superconductivity is an electrical resistance of exactly zero which occurs in certain materials below a
characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911.
Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum mechanical phenomenon. It is
also characterized by a phenomenon called the Meissner effect, the ejection of any sufficiently weak magnetic
field from the interior of the superconductor as it transitions into the superconducting state. The occurrence of
the Meissner effect indicates that superconductivity cannot be understood simply as the idealization of perfect
conductivity in classical physics.

The electrical resistivity of a metallic conductor decreases gradually as the temperature is lowered. However, in
ordinary conductors such as copper and silver, this decrease is limited by impurities and other defects. Even
near absolute zero, a real sample of copper shows some resistance. Despite these imperfections, in a
superconductor the resistance drops abruptly to zero when the material is cooled below its critical temperature.
An electric current flowing in a loop of superconducting wire can persist indefinitely with no power source.[1]

In 1986, it was discovered that some cuprate-perovskite ceramic materials have critical temperatures above
90 K (−183 °C). These high-temperature superconductors renewed interest in the topic because of the
prospects for improvement and potential room-temperature superconductivity. From a practical perspective,
even 90 kelvins is relatively easy to reach with the readily available liquid nitrogen (boiling point 77 kelvins),
resulting in more experiments and applications.

See also the history of superconductivity.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Classification
• 2 Elementary properties of superconductors
o 2.1 Zero electrical DC resistance
o 2.2 Superconducting phase transition
o 2.3 Meissner effect
o 2.4 London moment

• 3 Theories of superconductivity
• 4 History of superconductivity
• 5 High-temperature superconductivity
o 5.1 Crystal structure of high-temperature ceramic superconductors

 5.1.1 YBCO superconductors

 5.1.2 Bi-, Tl- and Hg-based high-Tc superconductors
o 5.2 Preparation of high-Tc superconductors

• 6 Applications
• 7 See also
• 8 References
• 9 Further reading

• 10 External links

Classification
Main article: Superconductor classification

There is not just one criterion to classify superconductors. The most common are

 By their physical properties: they can be Type I (if their phase transition is of first order) or Type II (if
their phase transition is of second order).
  By the theory to explain them: they can be conventional (if they are explained by the BCS theory or
its derivatives) or unconventional (if not).

 By their critical temperature: they can be high temperature (generally considered if they reach the
superconducting state just cooling them with liquid nitrogen, that is, if Tc > 77 K), or low
temperature (generally if they need other techniques to be cooled under their critical temperature).

 By material: they can be chemical elements (as mercury or lead), alloys (as niobium-
titanium or germanium-niobium), ceramics (as YBCO or the magnesium diboride), or organic
superconductors (as fullerenes or carbon nanotubes, which technically might be included among the
chemical elements as they are made of carbon).

Elementary properties of superconductors

Most of the physical properties of superconductors vary from material to material, such as the heat
capacity and the critical temperature, critical field, and critical current density at which superconductivity is
destroyed.

On the other hand, there is a class of properties that are independent of the underlying material. For instance,
all superconductors have exactly zero resistivity to low applied currents when there is no magnetic field present
or if the applied field does not exceed a critical value. The existence of these "universal" properties implies that
superconductivity is a thermodynamic phase, and thus possesses certain distinguishing properties which are
largely independent of microscopic details.

Zero electrical DC resistance

Electric cables for accelerators at CERN: top, regular cables for LEP; bottom, superconducting cables for theLHC.

The simplest method to measure the electrical resistance of a sample of some material is to place it in
an electrical circuit in series with a current source I and measure the resulting voltage V across the sample.
The resistance of the sample is given by Ohm's law as R = V/I. If the voltage is zero, this means that the
resistance is zero and that the sample is in the superconducting state.
Superconductors are also able to maintain a current with no applied voltage whatsoever, a property exploited
in superconducting electromagnets such as those found in MRI machines. Experiments have demonstrated
that currents in superconducting coils can persist for years without any measurable degradation. Experimental
evidence points to a current lifetime of at least 100,000 years. Theoretical estimates for the lifetime of a
persistent current can exceed the estimated lifetime of the universe, depending on the wire geometry and the
temperature.[1]

In a normal conductor, an electric current may be visualized as a fluid of electrons moving across a
heavy ionic lattice. The electrons are constantly colliding with the ions in the lattice, and during each collision
some of the energy carried by the current is absorbed by the lattice and converted into heat, which is
essentially the vibrational kinetic energy of the lattice ions. As a result, the energy carried by the current is
constantly being dissipated. This is the phenomenon of electrical resistance.

The situation is different in a superconductor. In a conventional superconductor, the electronic fluid cannot be
resolved into individual electrons. Instead, it consists of bound pairs of electrons known as Cooper pairs. This
pairing is caused by an attractive force between electrons from the exchange of phonons. Due toquantum
mechanics, the energy spectrum of this Cooper pair fluid possesses an energy gap, meaning there is a
minimum amount of energy ΔE that must be supplied in order to excite the fluid. Therefore, if ΔE is larger than
the thermal energy of the lattice, given by kT, where k is Boltzmann's constant and T is the temperature, the
fluid will not be scattered by the lattice. The Cooper pair fluid is thus a superfluid, meaning it can flow without
energy dissipation.

In a class of superconductors known as type II superconductors, including all known high-temperature

superconductors, an extremely small amount of resistivity appears at temperatures not too far below the
nominal superconducting transition when an electric current is applied in conjunction with a strong magnetic
field, which may be caused by the electric current. This is due to the motion of vortices in the electronic
superfluid, which dissipates some of the energy carried by the current. If the current is sufficiently small, the
vortices are stationary, and the resistivity vanishes. The resistance due to this effect is tiny compared with that
of non-superconducting materials, but must be taken into account in sensitive experiments. However, as the
temperature decreases far enough below the nominal superconducting transition, these vortices can become
frozen into a disordered but stationary phase known as a "vortex glass". Below this vortex glass transition
temperature, the resistance of the material becomes truly zero.
Superconducting phase transition

Behavior of heat capacity (cv, blue) and resistivity (ρ, green) at the superconducting phase transition

In superconducting materials, the characteristics of superconductivity appear when the temperature T is

lowered below a critical temperature Tc. The value of this critical temperature varies from material to material.
Conventional superconductors usually have critical temperatures ranging from around 20 K to less than 1 K.
Solid mercury, for example, has a critical temperature of 4.2 K. As of 2009, the highest critical temperature
found for a conventional superconductor is 39 K for magnesium diboride (MgB2),[2][3]although this material
displays enough exotic properties that there is some doubt about classifying it as a "conventional"
superconductor.[4] Cuprate superconductors can have much higher critical temperatures:YBa2Cu3O7, one of the
first cuprate superconductors to be discovered, has a critical temperature of 92 K, and mercury-based cuprates
have been found with critical temperatures in excess of 130 K. The explanation for these high critical
temperatures remains unknown. Electron pairing due to phonon exchanges explains superconductivity in
conventional superconductors, but it does not explain superconductivity in the newer superconductors that
have a very high critical temperature.

Similarly, at a fixed temperature below the critical temperature, superconducting materials cease to
superconduct when an external magnetic field is applied which is greater than the critical magnetic field. This is
because the Gibbs free energy of the superconducting phase increases quadratically with the magnetic field
while the free energy of the normal phase is roughly independent of the magnetic field. If the material
superconducts in the absence of a field, then the superconducting phase free energy is lower than that of the
normal phase and so for some finite value of the magnetic field (proportional to the square root of the difference
of the free energies at zero magnetic field) the two free energies will be equal and a phase transition to the
normal phase will occur. More generally, a higher temperature and a stronger magnetic field lead to a smaller
fraction of the electrons in the superconducting band and consequently a longer London penetration depth of
external magnetic fields and currents. The penetration depth becomes infinite at the phase transition.

The onset of superconductivity is accompanied by abrupt changes in various physical properties, which is the
hallmark of a phase transition. For example, the electronic heat capacity is proportional to the temperature in
the normal (non-superconducting) regime. At the superconducting transition, it suffers a discontinuous jump
and thereafter ceases to be linear. At low temperatures, it varies instead as e−α /T for some constant, α. This
exponential behavior is one of the pieces of evidence for the existence of the energy gap.

The order of the superconducting phase transition was long a matter of debate. Experiments indicate that the
transition is second-order, meaning there is no latent heat. However in the presence of an external magnetic
field there is latent heat, as a result of the fact that the superconducting phase has a lower entropy below the
critical temperature than the normal phase. It has been experimentally demonstrated[5] that, as a consequence,
when the magnetic field is increased beyond the critical field, the resulting phase transition leads to a decrease
in the temperature of the superconducting material.

Calculations in the 1970s suggested that it may actually be weakly first-order due to the effect of long-range
fluctuations in the electromagnetic field. In the 1980s it was shown theoretically with the help of a disorder field
theory, in which the vortex lines of the superconductor play a major role, that the transition is of second order
within the type II regime and of first order (i.e., latent heat) within the type I regime, and that the two regions are
separated by a tricritical point.[6] The results were confirmed by Monte Carlo computer simulations.[7]

Meissner effect
When a superconductor is placed in a weak external magnetic field H, and cooled below its transition
temperature, the magnetic field is ejected. The Meissner effect does not cause the field to be completely
ejected but instead the field penetrates the superconductor but only to a very small distance, characterized by a
parameter λ, called the London penetration depth, decaying exponentially to zero within the bulk of the
material. The Meissner effect is a defining characteristic of superconductivity. For most superconductors, the
London penetration depth is on the order of 100 nm.

The Meissner effect is sometimes confused with the kind of diamagnetism one would expect in a perfect
electrical conductor: according to Lenz's law, when a changing magnetic field is applied to a conductor, it will
induce an electric current in the conductor that creates an opposing magnetic field. In a perfect conductor, an
arbitrarily large current can be induced, and the resulting magnetic field exactly cancels the applied field.
The Meissner effect is distinct from this—it is the spontaneous expulsion which occurs during transition to
superconductivity. Suppose we have a material in its normal state, containing a constant internal magnetic
field. When the material is cooled below the critical temperature, we would observe the abrupt expulsion of the
internal magnetic field, which we would not expect based on Lenz's law.

The Meissner effect was given a phenomenological explanation by the brothers Fritz and Heinz London, who
showed that the electromagnetic free energy in a superconductor is minimized provided

where H is the magnetic field and λ is the London penetration depth.

This equation, which is known as the London equation, predicts that the magnetic field in a
superconductor decays exponentially from whatever value it possesses at the surface.

A superconductor with little or no magnetic field within it is said to be in the Meissner state. The Meissner state
breaks down when the applied magnetic field is too large. Superconductors can be divided into two classes
according to how this breakdown occurs. In Type I superconductors, superconductivity is abruptly destroyed
when the strength of the applied field rises above a critical value Hc. Depending on the geometry of the sample,
one may obtain an intermediate state[8] consisting of a baroque pattern[9] of regions of normal material carrying
a magnetic field mixed with regions of superconducting material containing no field. In Type II superconductors,
raising the applied field past a critical value Hc1 leads to a mixed state (also known as the vortex state) in which
an increasing amount of magnetic flux penetrates the material, but there remains no resistance to the flow of
electric current as long as the current is not too large. At a second critical field strength Hc2, superconductivity is
destroyed. The mixed state is actually caused by vortices in the electronic superfluid, sometimes
called fluxons because the flux carried by these vortices is quantized. Most pure elemental superconductors,
except niobium, technetium, vanadium and carbon nanotubes, are Type I, while almost all impure and
compound superconductors are Type II.

London moment
Conversely, a spinning superconductor generates a magnetic field, precisely aligned with the spin axis. The
effect, the London moment, was put to good use in Gravity Probe B. This experiment measured the magnetic
fields of four superconducting gyroscopes to determine their spin axes. This was critical to the experiment since
it is one of the few ways to accurately determine the spin axis of an otherwise featureless sphere.

Theories of superconductivity
Since the discovery of superconductivity, great efforts have been devoted to finding out how and why it works.
During the 1950s, theoretical condensed matter physicists arrived at a solid understanding of "conventional"
superconductivity, through a pair of remarkable and important theories: the phenomenological Ginzburg-
Landau theory (1950) and the microscopicBCS theory (1957).[10][11] Generalizations of these theories form the
basis for understanding the closely related phenomenon of superfluidity, because they fall into the Lambda
transition universality class, but the extent to which similar generalizations can be applied to unconventional
superconductors as well is still controversial. The four-dimensional extension of the Ginzburg-Landau theory,
the Coleman-Weinberg model, is important in quantum field theory and cosmology.

History of superconductivity
Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who was studying the resistance of
solid mercury at cryogenic temperatures using the recently-discovered liquid helium as a refrigerant. At the
temperature of 4.2 K, he observed that the resistance abruptly disappeared.[12] He initially thought that his
apparatus had shorted out. Only later did he realize that the effect was real.[13] In subsequent decades,
superconductivity was found in several other materials. In 1913, lead was found to superconduct at 7 K, and in
1941 niobium nitride was found to superconduct at 16 K.

The next important step in understanding superconductivity occurred in 1933,

when Meissner and Ochsenfeld discovered that superconductors expelled applied magnetic fields, a
phenomenon which has come to be known as the Meissner effect.[14] In 1935, F. and H. London showed that
the Meissner effect was a consequence of the minimization of the electromagnetic free energy carried by
superconducting current.[15]

In 1950, the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity was devised

by Landau and Ginzburg.[16] This theory, which combined Landau's theory of second-orderphase
transitions with a Schrödinger-like wave equation, had great success in explaining the macroscopic properties
of superconductors. In particular, Abrikosov showed that Ginzburg-Landau theory predicts the division of
superconductors into the two categories now referred to as Type I and Type II. Abrikosov and Ginzburg were
awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for their work (Landau had received the 1962 Nobel Prize for other work, and
died in 1968).

Also in 1950, Maxwell and Reynolds et al. found that the critical temperature of a superconductor depends on
the isotopic mass of the constituent element.[17][18] This important discovery pointed to the electron-
phonon interaction as the microscopic mechanism responsible for superconductivity.

The complete microscopic theory of superconductivity was finally proposed in 1957

by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer.[11] Independently, the superconductivity phenomenon was explained
by Nikolay Bogolyubov. This BCS theory explained the superconducting current as a superfluid of Cooper
pairs, pairs of electrons interacting through the exchange of phonons. For this work, the authors were awarded
the Nobel Prize in 1972.
The BCS theory was set on a firmer footing in 1958, when Bogoliubov showed that the BCS wavefunction,
which had originally been derived from a variational argument, could be obtained using a canonical
transformation of the electronic Hamiltonian.[19] In 1959, Lev Gor'kov showed that the BCS theory reduced to
the Ginzburg-Landau theory close to the critical temperature.[20]

In 1962, the first commercial superconducting wire, a niobium-titanium alloy, was developed by researchers
at Westinghouse, allowing the construction of the first practicalsuperconducting magnets. In the same
year, Josephson made the important theoretical prediction that a supercurrent can flow between two pieces of
superconductor separated by a thin layer of insulator.[21] This phenomenon, now called the Josephson effect, is
exploited by superconducting devices such as SQUIDs(A SQUID (for superconducting quantum
interference device) is a very sensitive magnetometer used to measure extremely weakmagnetic fields,
based on superconducting loops containing Josephson junctions.). It is used in the most accurate available
measurements of the magnetic flux quantum

, and thus (coupled with the quantum Hall resistivity) for Planck's constant h. Josephson was
awarded the Nobel Prize for this work in 1973.

In 2008, it was discovered that the same mechanism that produces superconductivity could produce
a superinsulator state in some materials, with almost infinite electrical resistance.[22]

High-temperature superconductivity
Until 1986, physicists had believed that BCS theory forbade superconductivity at temperatures above about
30 K. In that year, Bednorz and Müller discovered superconductivity in alanthanum-based
cuprate perovskite material, which had a transition temperature of 35 K (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1987).[23] It was
shortly found that replacing the lanthanum withyttrium (i.e., making YBCO) raised the critical temperature to 92
K, which was important because liquid nitrogen could then be used as a refrigerant (at atmospheric pressure,
the boiling point of nitrogen is 77 K).[24] This is important commercially because liquid nitrogen can be produced
cheaply on-site from air, and is not prone to some of the problems (for instance solid air plugs) of helium in
piping. Many other cuprate superconductors have since been discovered, and the theory of superconductivity
in these materials is one of the major outstanding challenges of theoretical condensed matter physics. All
unusual properties of the high-temperature superconductors that were discovered in the 1980s can now be
explained.[25]

From about 1993, the highest temperature superconductor was a ceramic material consisting of thallium,
mercury, copper, barium, calcium and oxygen (HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8+δ) with Tc = 138 K.[26]

In February 2008, an iron-based family of high-temperature superconductors was discovered.[27][28] Hideo

Hosono, of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and colleagues found lanthanum oxygen fluorine iron arsenide
(LaO1-xFxFeAs), an oxypnictide that superconducts below 26 K. Replacing the lanthanum in LaO1−xFxFeAs
with samarium leads to superconductors that work at 55 K.[29]

Crystal structure of high-temperature ceramic superconductors

The structure of a high-Tc superconductor is closely related to perovskite structure, and the structure of these
compounds has been described as a distorted, oxygen deficient multi-layered perovskite structure. One of the
properties of the crystal structure of oxide superconductors is an alternating multi-layer of CuO2 planes with
superconductivity taking place between these layers. The more layers of CuO2 the higher Tc. This structure
causes a large anisotropy in normal conducting and superconducting properties, since electrical currents are
carried by holes induced in the oxygen sites of the CuO2 sheets. The electrical conduction is highly anisotropic,
with a much higher conductivity parallel to the CuO2 plane than in the perpendicular direction. Generally,
Critical temperatures depend on the chemical compositions, cations substitutions and oxygen content. They
can be classified as superstripes; i.e., particular realizations of superlattices at atomic limit made of
superconducting atomic layers, wires, dots separated by spacer layers, that gives multiband and multigap
superconductivy.

YBCO superconductors

YBCO unit cell

The first superconductor found with Tc > 77 K (liquid nitrogen boiling point) is yttrium barium copper oxide
(YBa2Cu3O7-x), the proportions of the 3 different metals in the YBa2Cu3O7 superconductor are in the mole
ratio of 1 to 2 to 3 for yttrium to barium to copper respectively. Thus, this particular superconductor is
often referred to as the 123 superconductor.
The unit cell of YBa2Cu3O7 consists of three pseudocubic elementary perovskite unit cells. Each
perovskite unit cell contains a Y or Ba atom at the center: Ba in the bottom unit cell, Y in the middle one,
and Ba in the top unit cell. Thus, Y and Ba are stacked in the sequence [Ba–Y–Ba] along the c-axis. All
corner sites of the unit cell are occupied by Cu, which has two different coordinations, Cu(1) and Cu(2),
with respect to oxygen. There are four possible crystallographic sites for oxygen: O(1), O(2), O(3) and
O(4).[30] The coordination polyhedra of Y and Ba with respect to oxygen are different. The tripling of the
perovskite unit cell leads to nine oxygen atoms, whereas YBa2Cu3O7 has seven oxygen atoms and,
therefore, is referred to as an oxygen-deficient perovskite structure. The structure has a stacking of
different layers: (CuO)(BaO)(CuO2)(Y)(CuO2)(BaO)(CuO). One of the key feature of the unit cell of
YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) is the presence of two layers of CuO2. The role of the Y plane is to serve as a
spacer between two CuO2 planes. In YBCO, the Cu–O chains are known to play an important role for
superconductivity. Tc is maximal near 92 K when x ≈ 0.15 and the structure is orthorhombic.
Superconductivity disappears at x ≈ 0.6, where the structural transformation of YBCO occurs from
orthorhombic to tetragonal.[31]

Bi-, Tl- and Hg-based high-Tc superconductors

The crystal structure of Bi-, Tl- and Hg-based high-Tc superconductors are very similar. Like YBCO, the
perovskite-type feature and the presence of CuO2 layers also exist in these superconductors. However,
unlike YBCO, Cu–O chains are not present in these superconductors. The YBCO superconductor has an
orthorhombic structure, whereas the other high-Tc superconductors have a tetragonal structure.

The Bi–Sr–Ca–Cu–O system has three superconducting phases forming a homologous series as
Bi2Sr2Can−1CunO4+2n+x (n = 1, 2 and 3). These three phases are Bi-2201, Bi-2212 and Bi-2223, having
transition temperatures of 20, 85 and 110 K, respectively, where the numbering system represent number
of atoms for Bi, Sr, Ca and Cu respectively.[32] The two phases have a tetragonal structure which consists
of two sheared crystallographic unit cells. The unit cell of these phases has double Bi–O planes which are
stacked in a way that the Bi atom of one plane sits below the oxygen atom of the next consecutive plane.
The Ca atom forms a layer within the interior of the CuO2 layers in both Bi-2212 and Bi-2223; there is no
Ca layer in the Bi-2201 phase. The three phases differ with each other in the number of CuO2 planes; Bi-
2201, Bi-2212 and Bi-2223 phases have one, two and three CuO2 planes, respectively. The c axis of
these phases increases with the number of CuO2 planes (see table below). The coordination of the Cu
atom is different in the three phases. The Cu atom forms an octahedral coordination with respect to
oxygen atoms in the 2201 phase, whereas in 2212, the Cu atom is surrounded by five oxygen atoms in a
pyramidal arrangement. In the 2223 structure, Cu has two coordinations with respect to oxygen: one Cu
atom is bonded with four oxygen atoms in square planar configuration and another Cu atom is
coordinated with five oxygen atoms in a pyramidal arrangement.[33]
Tl–Ba–Ca–Cu–O superconductor: The first series of the Tl-based superconductor containing one Tl–O
layer has the general formula TlBa2Can-1CunO2n+3,[34] whereas the second series containing two Tl–O
layers has a formula of Tl2Ba2Can-1CunO2n+4 with n = 1, 2 and 3. In the structure of Tl2Ba2CuO6 (Tl-2201),
there is one CuO2 layer with the stacking sequence (Tl–O) (Tl–O) (Ba–O) (Cu–O) (Ba–O) (Tl–O) (Tl–O).
In Tl2Ba2CaCu2O8 (Tl-2212), there are two Cu–O layers with a Ca layer in between. Similar to the
Tl2Ba2CuO6structure, Tl–O layers are present outside the Ba–O layers. In Tl2Ba2Ca2Cu3O10 (Tl-2223),
there are three CuO2 layers enclosing Ca layers between each of these. In Tl-based
superconductors, Tc is found to increase with the increase in CuO2 layers. However, the value
of Tc decreases after four CuO2 layers in TlBa2Can-1CunO2n+3, and in the Tl2Ba2Can-1CunO2n+4 compound, it
decreases after three CuO2 layers.[35]

Hg–Ba–Ca–Cu–O superconductor: The crystal structure of HgBa2CuO4 (Hg-1201),

[36]
HgBa2CaCu2O6 (Hg-1212) and HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8 (Hg-1223) is similar to that of Tl-1201, Tl-1212 and Tl-
1223, with Hg in place of Tl. It is noteworthy that the Tc of the Hg compound (Hg-1201) containing one
CuO2 layer is much larger as compared to the one-CuO2-layer compound of thallium (Tl-1201). In the Hg-
based superconductor, Tc is also found to increase as the CuO2 layer increases. For Hg-1201, Hg-1212
and Hg-1223, the values of Tc are 94, 128 and 134 K respectively, as shown in table below. The
observation that the Tc of Hg-1223 increases to 153 K under high pressure indicates that the Tc of this
compound is very sensitive to the structure of the compound.[37]

Critical temperature (Tc), crystal structure and lattice constants of some high-Tc superconductors

No. of Cu-O planes

Formula Notation Tc (K) Crystal structure
in unit cell

YBa2Cu3O7 123 92 2 Orthorhombic

Bi2Sr2CuO6 Bi-2201 20 1 Tetragonal

Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 Bi-2212 85 2 Tetragonal

Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O6 Bi-2223 110 3 Tetragonal

Tl2Ba2CuO6 Tl-2201 80 1 Tetragonal

 Tl2Ba2CaCu2O8 Tl-2212 108 2 Tetragonal

Tl2Ba2Ca2Cu3O10 Tl-2223 125 3 Tetragonal

TlBa2Ca3Cu4O11 Tl-1234 122 4 Tetragonal

HgBa2CuO4 Hg-1201 94 1 Tetragonal

HgBa2CaCu2O6 Hg-1212 128 2 Tetragonal

HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8 Hg-1223 134 3 Tetragonal

Preparation of high-Tc superconductors

The simplest method for preparing high-Tc superconductors is a solid-state thermochemical reaction
involving mixing, calcination and sintering. The appropriate amounts of precursor powders, usually oxides
and carbonates, are mixed thoroughly using a ball mill. Solution chemistry processes such
as coprecipitation, freeze-drying and sol–gel methods are alternative ways for preparing a homogenous
mixture. These powders are calcined in the temperature range from 800 °C to 950 °C for several hours.
The powders are cooled, reground and calcined again. This process is repeated several times to get
homogenous material. The powders are subsequently compacted to pellets and sintered. The sintering
environment such as temperature, annealing time, atmosphere and cooling rate play a very important role
in getting good high-Tc superconducting materials. The YBa2Cu3O7-x compound is prepared by calcination
and sintering of a homogenous mixture of Y2O3, BaCO3 and CuO in the appropriate atomic ratio.
Calcination is done at 900–950 °C, whereas sintering is done at 950 °C in an oxygen atmosphere. The
oxygen stoichiometry in this material is very crucial for obtaining a superconducting
YBa2Cu3O7−x compound. At the time of sintering, the semiconducting tetragonal YBa2Cu3O6 compound is
formed, which, on slow cooling in oxygen atmosphere, turns into superconducting YBa2Cu3O7−x. The
uptake and loss of oxygen are reversible in YBa2Cu3O7−x. A fully oxidized orthorhombic
YBa2Cu3O7−x sample can be transformed into tetragonal YBa2Cu3O6 by heating in a vacuum at
temperature above 700 °C.[31]

The preparation of Bi-, Tl- and Hg-based high-Tc superconductors is difficult compared to YBCO.
Problems in these superconductors arise because of the existence of three or more phases having a
similar layered structure. Thus, syntactic intergrowth and defects such as stacking faults occur during
 synthesis and it becomes difficult to isolate a single superconducting phase. For Bi–Sr–Ca–Cu–O, it is
relatively simple to prepare the Bi-2212 (Tc ≈ 85 K) phase, whereas it is very difficult to prepare a single
phase of Bi-2223 (Tc ≈ 110 K). The Bi-2212 phase appears only after few hours of sintering at 860–
870 °C, but the larger fraction of the Bi-2223 phase is formed after a long reaction time of more than a
week at 870 °C.[33] Although the substitution of Pb in the Bi–Sr–Ca–Cu–O compound has been found to
promote the growth of the high-Tc phase,[38] a long sintering time is still required.

Applications
Superconducting magnets are some of the most powerful electromagnets known. They are used
in MRI and NMR machines, mass spectrometers, and the beam-steering magnets used in particle accelerators.
They can also be used for magnetic separation, where weakly magnetic particles are extracted from a
background of less or non-magnetic particles, as in the pigment industries.

In the 1950s and 1960s, superconductors were used to build experimental digital computers
using cryotron switches. More recently, superconductors have been used to make digital circuits based
on rapid single flux quantum technology and RF and microwave filters formobile phone base stations.

Superconductors are used to build Josephson junctions which are the building blocks
of SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices), the most sensitive magnetometers known.
SQUIDs are used in scanning SQUID microscopes and magnetoencephalography. Series of Josephson
devices are used to realize the SI volt. Depending on the particular mode of operation, a Josephson junction
can be used as a photon detector or as a mixer. The large resistance change at the transition from the normal-
to the superconducting state is used to build thermometers in cryogenic micro-calorimeter photon detectors.

Other early markets are arising where the relative efficiency, size and weight advantages of devices based
on high-temperature superconductivity outweigh the additional costs involved.

Promising future applications include high-performance smart grid, electric power

transmission, transformers, power storage devices, electric motors (e.g. for vehicle propulsion, as
invactrains or maglev trains), magnetic levitation devices, fault current limiters, nanoscopic materials such
as buckyballs, nanotubes, composite materials and superconducting magnetic refrigeration. However,
superconductivity is sensitive to moving magnetic fields so applications that use alternating current (e.g.
transformers) will be more difficult to develop than those that rely upon direct current.

Some of the technological applications of superconductivity include:

 the production of sensitive magnetometers based on SQUIDs,

  fast digital circuits (including those based on Josephson junctions and rapid single flux
quantum technology),
 powerful superconducting electromagnets used in maglev trains, Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI) and Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) machines, magnetic confinement
fusion reactors (e.g. tokamaks), and the beam-steering and focusing magnets used in particle
accelerators,
 low-loss power cables,
 RF and microwave filters (e.g., for mobile phone base stations, as well as, military ultra-
sensitive/selective receivers),
 fast fault current limiters
 railgun and coilgun magnets.
 Electric motors and generators

The biggest application right now for superconductivity is in producing the large volume, stable magnetic
fields required for MRI and NMR. This represents a multi-billion US$ market for companies such
as Oxford Instruments, Siemens etc. The magnets typically use low temperature superconductors (LTS)
because high-temperature superconductors are not yet cheap enough to cost effectively deliver the high,
stable and large volume fields required, notwithstanding the need to cool LTS instruments to liquid helium
temperatures. Superconductors are also used in high field scientific magnets because copper has a limit
to the field strength it can produce.

Holbrook Superconductor Project

The Holbrook Superconductor Project is a project to design and build the world's first
production superconducting transmission power cable. The cable was commissioned in late June 2008.
The suburban Long Island electrical substation is fed by about 600-meter-long underground cable system
consists of about 99 miles of high-temperature superconductor wiremanufactured by American
Superconductor, installed underground and chilled with liquid nitrogen greatly reducing the costly right-of-
way required to deliver additional power.[7]

[edit]Tres Amigas Project

American Superconductor was chosen for The Tres Amigas Project, the United States’ first renewable
energy market hub.[8] The Tres Amigas renewable energy market hub will be a multi-mile, triangular
electricity pathway of Superconductor Electricity Pipelines capable of transferring and balancing many
gigawatts of power between three U.S. power grids (the Eastern Interconnection, the Western
Interconnection and the Texas Interconnection). Unlike traditional powerlines, it will transfer power as DC
instead of AC current. It will be located in Clovis, New Mexico.