History of superconductivity

Answer these questions

1 What do you know about superconductivity?

2 When was superconductivity discovered?

3 What is a superconductor?

Read the information and say what current applications of superconductivity you know.

The phenomenon of superconductivity has always been very exciting, both for its fundamental scientific interest and because of its many applications. The discovery in 1980s of high-temperature superconductivity in certain metallic oxides sparked even greater excitement in the scientific and business communities. Many scientists consider this major breakthrough to be as important as the invention of the transistor. For this reason, it is important that all students of science and engineering understand the basic electromagnetic properties of superconductors and become aware of the scope of their current applications.

Complete the definitions, using the prompts.

 resistance                a substance/ the degree/ the flow of electricity/to which/prevents/through it

 resistivity                 electrical/of/resistance/ a measure/ of a substance

 conductv (physics)  to flow/ electricity or heat/ through/to allow

 conductor                 electricity/a substance/ or heat/ that allows/ to pass/ along it or through it  

 superconductor        resistance/ a/ zero/ with/electrical/ material

 semiconductor     such as silicon,/ a substance/ to flow/ that/ some/ allows/ electricity/

                                through it/ to flow

 insulator              allow/ a substance/ that/ does not/electricity/ to pass/ through

Choose the correct alternative.

1 Copper/gold/silver is the most electrically conductive element

2 Aluminum is a good superconductor/ conductor/semiconductor

3 Mercury becomes a conductor/ superconductor/ semiconductor at very low temperatures

4 Although silver/copper/ is the best conductor, copper / silver/ is used more often

in electrical applications because copper /silver is less expensive

5 Gold /silver has a much higher corrosion resistance

6 Glass is a good conductor/ superconductor /insulator   

5 Work in pairs and discuss the questions.

1 What is the most conductive element?

2 What is an electrical insulator? Name some common insulators.

3 How does a conductor differ from an insulator?

4 What makes water a good conductor of electricity?

5 What elements are used more often as conductors in electrical applications? Why?

6 Why is silver the best conductor?

Decide which part of speech the words belong to.

Superconductivity, superconductor, superconductive, superconducting; physics, physical, physicist, physically; resistivity, resistance, resistant, resistor; differ, difference, different, differentiate, differently, differential; apply, appliance, application, applied, applicable;

measure, measureless, measurement; powerless, power, powerful, powerfully.

7 Watch the first part of the video “Adventures at Nanoscale: Superconductivity” (5:08 min) and answer the questions. Use the prompts.

Useful notes

strand v (usually passive) – застрять на дороге, сесть на мель

flashlight - фонарик

a bunch of people - группа людей

1 Why was a group of high school friends stranded on a country road?

   car/ break/ down

2 What did they decide to do?

   town/ near/ walk

3 Why couldn’t they call for help?

   phone/ not work/ walk/ clear phone signal

4 What was the story about in the science blog?

/ superconductors/use/ less energy/regular conductors

5 What happened with Ellie and Eddie?

          become /small/ turn /copper /atom/

6 Where did they find themselves?

          inside / one/ atoms/ copper/ wire

7  What explanation was given to the term ’regular conductor in the video?

        material/ allow/ electron/ freely/ move /around

8 Watch the second part of the video “Adventures at Nanoscale: Superconductivity “

What answers are given in the video to these questions?

1 How does being cold help?

        electrons/ get together/ easy/ move around/in pairs

2 So what makes superconductors ‘super’?

       move around/ easy/regular conductors/

3 Why is it important to get rid of vortices? (vortex, pl .vortices-вихрь)

Match English words and phrases with Russian equivalents.

BCS theory, the Meissner effect, the division of superconductors into the two categories,

mercury, in subsequent decades, to expel magnetic fields, refrigerant, a thin layer of insulator, macroscopic properties of superconductors, finally, wire, discover, superfluid.

ртуть, охладитель, в последующие десятилетия, вытеснять магнитное поле, эффект Мейснера, макроскопические свойства сверхпроводников, разделение сверхпроводников на два рода, БКШ теория, тонкий слой диэлектрика, наконец, открывать (обнаруживать), провод,  сверхтекучесть.

10 Read the text and answer the questions.

1 Who discovered superconductivity?

2 Who made further advances in the field of superconductivity?

3 What did the BCS theory explain?

4 Who developed the first superconducting wire?

Useful notes

Нeike Kamerlingh Onnes- голландский физик и химик Хейке Камерлинг Оннес

liquid helium-жидкий гелий

lead |lеd| -свинец  

niobium nitride |naɪˈoʊbiəm|-нитрид ниобия

expel-вытеснять, выталкивать

Walter Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld- немецкие физики Вальтер Мейснер и Роберт Оксенфельд

F.and H. London- немецкие физики-теоретики Фриц и Хайнц Лондоны

John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and John Schrieffer- американские физики Джон Бардин, Леон Купер, Джон Роберт Шриффер.

BCS theory- БКШ теория

phonon- фонон (квант колебательной энергии кристаллической решётки)

niobium-titanium alloy |naɪˈoʊbiəm  tɪˈteɪniəm ˈælɔɪ| -сплав из титана и ниобия

Type I and Type II superconductors – сверхпроводники I и II рода

Brian Josephson – английский физик Брайан Джозефсон  

Paul Chu – американский физик китайского происхождения Пол Чу

lanthanum |ˈlænθənəm|   – химический элемент лантан (La)

yttrium  |ˈɪtriəm|  – химический элемент иттрий (Y)

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. For this discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913.

In subsequent decades, superconductivity was found in several other materials. In 1913, lead was found to be superconductive at 7 K, and in 1941 niobium nitride was found to be superconductive at 16 K.

The next important step in understanding superconductivity occurred in 1933, when Walter Meissner  and Robert Ochsenfeld  discovered that superconductors expelled applied magnetic

fields, a phenomenon that has come to be known as the "Meissner effect." 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.

In 1950 Lev Landau and Vitalij Ginzburg  formulated what came to be called the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity. This theory had great success in explaining the macroscopic properties of superconductors. In particular, Alexei Abrikosov showed that the 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 having died in 1968).

The complete, microscopic theory of superconductivity was finally proposed in 1957 by John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Schrieffer. It came to be known as the BCS theory. Superconductivity was independently explained by Nikolay Bogolyubov . The 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. In 1959 Lev Gor'kov showed that the BCS theory becomes equivalent to the Ginzburg-Landau theory close to the critical temperature.

In 1962 the first commercial superconducting wire, a niobium-titanium alloy, was developed by researchers at Westinghouse Electric Corporation. In the same year, Brian Josephson made the important theoretical prediction that a supercurrent can flow between two pieces of superconductor separated by a thin layer of insulator. This phenomenon, now called the "Josephson effect," is exploited by superconducting devices such as SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices). Josephson was awarded the Nobel Prize for this work in 1973.

Until 1986, physicists had believed that the BCS theory forbade superconductivity at temperatures above about 30 K. But that year it was found by Paul C. W. Chu of the University of Houston that replacing the lanthanum with yttrium  raised the critical temperature to 92 K. This latter discovery was significant because liquid nitrogen could then be used as a refrigerant (the boiling point of nitrogen is 77 K). This is important commercially because liquid nitrogen can be produced cheaply on-site with no raw materials.Many other 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  

Match the sentence halves.