Superconductors Essay

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New Superconductors: Advances, Issues, Limitations

Report by Amber Taylor

CHME 5699
Dr. Laura Lewis
Final Report
23 April 2014

Executive Summary
One of the most exciting and magical phenomena observed today in science is the levitation of superconductors in the presence of a magnetic field. While entertaining, this effect is also extremely useful and could combat one of the largest issues facing the world today: how can we continue to transport goods and people without burning fossil fuels which harm the Earth’s atmosphere? Better yet, how can we store energy harvested from renewable sources for long periods of time? The answer could be superconductors in conjunction with powerful magnets.
Superconductors currently exist at very low temperatures, generally between 0-10K. If room-temperature superconductors can be produced repeatedly under standard conditions, the Earth’s energy crisis would be considerably alleviated and a new era of super technology would be ushered in.
Statement of topic
This report summarizes advances, issues, and limitations in new high-temperature superconductors. Included are significance, prior research and discoveries, as well as the most advanced prediction and formulation methods to date. Within the confines of this report only Type 2 superconductors have been considered for simplicity and relevancy.
Introduction and Background
Superconductivity was first discovered a century ago in 1908 by Dutch physicist Heike Onnes[1] and is defined in classical physics as “perfect conductivity” or exactly zero electrical resistance (figure 1). With the discovery of the Meissner Effect in 1933, a new theory of superconductivity was formulated by Fritz and Hein London in 1935 stating superconductivity ...

... middle of paper ...

...d above in reference to elasticity modulus.
Methodology and Results
All information provided within this report can be accessed on the World Wide Web. Specifically the sources below provide excellent detail around modern superconductor theories and methodologies. There appears to be consensus regarding the importance of the mechanism of HT superconductivity.
Conclusions
Advances, issues, and limitations of high-temperature superconductors were explored within this report. The theory of superconductors as well as their history and most recent discoveries was addressed. Finally, current methods of increasing the critical temperature of superconductivity was presented and discussed. It was found that suppressing lattice vibrations, studying Meissner transitions, and controlling grain boundaries can help understand the mechanism of high temperature superconductivity.

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