T.Y.B.Sc.II/I SUPERCONDUCTIVITY N.

Kapoor 1

The electrical resistivity of many metals and alloys drops suddenly to zero when their specimens are
cooled to a sufficiently low temperature, offen a temperature in the liquid helium range. This
phenomenon is called superconductivity. This was first observed by Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911 while
measuring the resistivity of mercury at low temperatures. Onnes observed that theresistance of
mercury dropped from 0.08 O at about 4K to less than 3x10
-6
O over a temperature interval of 0.01K.
Superconductivity occurs in a wide variety of materials, including simple elements like tin and
aluminium, various metallic alloys, some heavily-doped semiconductors, and certain ceramic
compounds containing planes of copper and oxygen atoms. The latter class of compounds, known as
the cuprates, are high-temperature superconductors. Superconductivity does not occur in noble metals
like gold and silver, nor in most ferromagnetic metals, though a number of materials displaying both
superconductivity and ferromagnetism have been discovered in recent years.
The general features of superconducting materials are ---
(i) An electric current flowing in a loop of superconducting
wire can persist indefinitely with no power source.
(ii)Monovalent metals are generally not superconductors.
(iii) Ferromagnetic & antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric metals are not superconductors.
(iv) Superconductivity is observed for metals having valence electrons z between 2 to 8.
(v) The variation of T
c
with the number of valence electrons shows sharp maxima for z = 3, 5 & 7.
(vi) For elements along a given row of periodic table T
c
o Z
2
.
(vii) For a given value of z, certain crystal structures are more favourable than others. eg. |- tungston
& o manganese structures are conducive to the phenomenon of superconductivity.
(viii) Superconductivity occurs in materials having high normal resistivities. ( n > 10
6
where n no.
of valence electrons / cc , resistivity in electrostatic units at 20
0
c) Thus good conductors at
room temperatrure are not super- conductors and superconducting metals are not good
conductors at room temperature.
(ix) The specific heat of the material shows an abrupt change at T = T
c
, jumping to a large value for
T < T
c
.
(x) A superconductor will not allow a magnetic field to penetrate its interior. This effect, called the
Meissner Effect.
Transition temperature -- The transition temperature (Tc) is the critical temperature at which
the resistivity of the material suddenly changes to zero.



At a critical temperature T
c
the specimen undergoes a phase transition from a
state of normal electrical resistivity to a superconducting state. The width of the transition region in
aparticular specimen depends on a number of factors such as the purity & metallurgical history. Thus a
superconductor has its electrical resistance zero below transition or critical temperature Tc and the
conductivity in this range of temperature is infinite. The temperature dependence of the resistance of
normal & superconducting metal is as shown above.

Material T
c

Gallium 1.1K
Aluminum 1.2 K
Indium 3.4 K
Tin 3.7 K
Mercury 4.2
Lead 7.2 K
Niobium 9.3 K
La-Ba-Cu-oxide 17.9 K
Y-Ba-Cu-oxide 92 K
Tl-Ba-Cu-oxide 125 K
T.Y.B.Sc.II/I SUPERCONDUCTIVITY N.Kapoor 2
The value of this critical temperature varies from material to material. Conventional
superconductors usually have critical temperatures ranging from less than 1K to around 20K. Solid
mercury, for example, has a critical temperature of 4.2K. As of 2009, the highest critical temperature
found for a conventional superconductor is 39 K for magnesium diboride (MgB2), although this
material displays enough exotic properties that there is doubt about classifying it as a "conventional"
superconductor. 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.
BCS Theory of Superconductivity--This theory was developed by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer in
1957 based on electron- lattice- electron interaction. According
to this theory, an electron attracts lattice ions towards itself, so that it is surrounded by a region of
positive charges. Another gets attracted to this region at high positive ion concentration. Thus an
electron- lattice- electron interaction results in an electron pair formation. These pairs are called cooper
pairs. They can be scattered only if the energy involved is sufficient to break it up into two single
electrons.Copper pair electrons are of opposite momenta and spin (K and K). In addition, a cooper
pair does not obey Paulis exclusion principle and hence any number of cooper pairs can be
accommodated into a single quantum state.

Since an electron pair has a lower energy than the two normal
electrons, there is an energy gap between the paired and the
two single electrons.
As long as Cooper pair electrons remain in Cooper pair states,
they do not suffer scattering and hence resistivity will be zero.
When the temperature is raised, to overcome the energy gap,
Cooper pair electrons gets separated to normal single
electrons which may undergo scattering due to the presence
of imperfections in the crystal or lattice vibrations which leads
to a finite resistivity.


Effects of Magnetic Field A sufficiently strong magnetic field destroys superconductivity i.e.
superconductor becomes normal conductor. The critical value of the
applied magnetic field necessary to restore the normal resistivity i.e. to destroy superconductivity is
denoted by H
c
(T) and is a function of temperature. At critical temperature, the critical field is zero
H
c
(o) = 0. The variation of critical field as a function of temperature is as shown and critical field can
be represented as ---
H
c
= H
o
[ 1 - (T / T
c
)
2
]
H
o
is critical field at absolute zero.


















Figure-: This pairing results from a slight
attraction between the electrons related to
lattice vibrations; the coupling to the
lattice is called a phonon interaction.



T.Y.B.Sc.II/I SUPERCONDUCTIVITY N.Kapoor 3
MEISSNER EFFECT Meissner & Ochrenfeld found that if a superconductor is cooled in a magnetic
field to below the transition temperature, then at transition the lines
of induction B are pushed out. This phenomenon is called the
Meissner effect.
Meissner effect is a property of the superconductor, but not of the
perfect conductor. The superconductor is thus characterised by two
special properties (1) Resistivity = 0 (2) Magnetic induction = 0.

Explanation If B
a
is flux density of applied field then strength of
applied magnetic field is H
a
= B
a
/
o

And flux density in a magnetic material is B =
o
( H
a
+ M )
where M is magnetisation of the material. Inside the superconductor
B =
o
( H
a
+ M ) = 0 H
a
+ M = 0 or M = - H
a
Magnetic susceptibility _= M / H
a
= -1
Thus such materials are perfect diamagnetic. H
o
is in range of 10
7
Amp. / m.
The Penetration Depth : 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 , 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 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 is the London penetration depth.They did it by applying conditions
that for superconductors E=0 ( absence of resistivity ) & B=0 (from Meissner effect) to Maxwells equs.
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.
Therefor

( )

Where H
0
is magnetic field at the surface
.
Since the
magnetic field & surface current can penetrate to the
depth of 10-100 nm, in case of thin film superconductors,
there properties are significantly different from those of
bulk materials. In perticular the value of critical magnetic
field increases as the thickness decreases & special
properties arises from it.





Supercoductor (in nm)
Mercury 70
Indium 64
Lead 39
aluminium 50
Tin 50


0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
H/H
0

x
Decay of Field

T.Y.B.Sc. II/I SUPERCONDUCTIVITY N.Kapoor 4
The penitration depth varies with temprature. At low
temprature it is almost independent of temprature but
increases rapidly & approaches infinity as the
temperature approaches transition temperature. The
variation of penetration depth with temperature closely
follows the relation

Types of Superconductor Depending on their behavior in sufficiently strong fields,
superconductors are divided into two large groups: type I and type II. Figures show in a somewhat
idealized form the magnetization curves M (H) that are typical for each group.
Type I -- In this type of material, as H
c
is reached, the entire specimen enters the normal state
practically simultaneously, the resistance returns, the diamagnetic moment becomes zero &
B internal = B external. eg. Al, Zn, Hg & Sn.

Type I Type II






TYPE II -- In this type of superconductors, the transition to a completely normal specimen is muchmore
gradual. In these materials, the magnetic flux does not penetrate ( i.e. B = 0 ) upto a critical
field H
c
, called lower critical field. For fields lying between Hc
1
& Hc
2
, the magnetic flux partially
penetrates the materials although it is still in the superconducting state. It is only for fields greater than
or equal to Hc
2
that the superconductivity is destroyed and the normal state is obtained. Hc
2
is called
upper critical field. The state within the fields & Hc
2
is called the mixed state or vortex state. The value
of critical field for type II may be 100 times more or even higher than that for type I material eg. Ta, V &
Nb.

Element T
C
(K) H
0
(A/m)
Al 1.196 0.79x10
4
Cadmium 0.52 0.22 x10
4

Mercury 4.12 3.3 x10
4

Tin 3.72 2.4 x10
4

Lead 7.175 6.5 x10
4

Element T
C
(K) H
0
(A/m)
Zinc 0.9 0.42 x10
4

Thorium 1.4 1.3 x10
4

NbN 16 8 x10
6

Nb
3
Sn 18.5 1.6 x10
7

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0 1 2 3 4

Penitration depth in 10
7
m T(K)
T
c


Applications of superconductors
For the production of high magnetic fields.
In high energy physics experiments.
In NMR imaging.
In magnetohydrodynamic power generation.
In magnetic separation for refining ores and chemicals.
As memory storage element in computers.
In superconducting generators and motors.
In superconducting fuses, switches and cables.
In Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID).
In levitating trains.