Superconductivity

S2634: Physique de la matire condense & nano-objets

Miguel Ana Asenjo Alexandre Le Boit Christine Lingblom

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What is superconductivity?

Superconductivity
Superconductivity generally occurs at very low temperatures. In this state the materials have exactly zero electrical resistivity. As the material drops below its superconducting critical temperature, magnetic fields within the material are (totally or partially) expelled. Superconductivity occurs in a wide variety of materials, including simple elements like tin and aluminium, various metallic alloys and some heavily-doped semiconductors.

Meissner effect
When a superconductor is placed in a weak external magnetic field, the field penetrates the superconductor only at a small distance, called the London penetration depth, decaying exponentially to zero within the bulk of the material.

bulk = 1

This is called the Meissner effect, and is a defining characteristic of superconductivity. For most superconductors, the London penetration depth is on the order of 100 nm.
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Phase transition
In superconducting materials, the phase transition appear when the temperatureT is lowered below a critical temperature Tc. The value of this critical temperature varies from material to material Superconductors usually have critical temperatures below 20 K (down to less than 1 K) Cuprate superconductors can have much higher critical temperatures. Mercury-based cuprates have been found with critical temperatures in excess of 130 K

Type I superconductors
Type I superconductors are superconductors that cannot be penetrated by magnetic flux lines (complete Meissner effect). As such, they have only a single critical temperature at which the material ceases to superconduct, becoming resistive. Elementary metals, such as aluminium, mercury and lead behave as typical Type I superconductors below their respective critical temperatures
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Type II superconductors
A Type-II superconductor is a superconductor characterised by its gradual transition from the superconducting to the normal state within an increasing magnetic field Typically they superconduct at higher temperatures and magnetic fields than Type-I superconductors. This allows them to conduct higher currents Type-II superconductors are usually made of metal alloys or complex oxide ceramics
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Critical Field vs Transition Temperature

History of Superconductivity
1911 - Discovery of superconductivity by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, while studying the resistance of solid mercury at cryogenic temperatures using liquid helium. 1933 - Meissner and Ochsenfeld discover the Meissner Effect. 1950 - Ginzburg-Landau theory. 1957 - Complete microscopic theory of superconductivity proposed by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer (1972 Nobel Prize winners in Physics). 1962 Josephson Effect
Kamerlingh Onnes

Josephson

Ochsenfeld

Meissner

Landau

Ginzburg

London theory (1935)

Macroscopic theory Fundamental facts :
When T<Tc supercurrent flows without resistance B=0 inside the superconductor

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London equation
The electrons are freely accelerated by the electric field :

Supercurrent is given by : Therefore : Substituting the previous into the equation for Faradays law :

We obtain a first equation :

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London equation
But this does not immediately imply B=0. Let us assume that :

Using :

We find : which is seen to account for the Meissner effect, since it does not allow a spatially uniform solution We call order of 100nm the penetration depth, which is of the

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Landau-Ginzburg theory (1950)

Phenomenological theory Based on Landaus theory of second order phase transitions Describes the phenomenon when T~Tc The idea is to find an expression for the free energy introducing a so called order parameter

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Expression of the free energy

Free energy in a metal with cubic symmetry when there is no electrmagnetic field :

When there is an electromagnetic field, jauge invariace imposes :

Next we have to minimize this expression. We perform variations with respect rot are 3 parameters : , , and A

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Landau-Ginzburg equations
First equation:

Second equation:

We recall Ampres law:

When the field is weak, London equation:

, and we find the

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Coherence length
We can express the London penetration depth in terms of a and b :

In GL theory, another parameter describing a superconductor states appears : the coherence length. It marks the fluctuation of : The ratio : determines whether a superconductor behaves as type I or type II (when it is less or greater than 1 2 respectively).
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BCS theory
BCS: microscopic theory of superconductivity
Requires a net attractive interaction between electrons in the neighborhood of the Fermi surface Cooper pairs Cooper pair wave functions are singlets with a symmetric, translationally invariant orbital part. By a variational calculation, the spatial range of the wavefunction is shown to be several orders of magnitude larger than the average spacing between electrons. Central feature: an energy gap exists between the energy of the cooper pairs in the BCS electronic ground state and the single particle excited states.

BCS theory is widely applicable and tremendously predictive

From He3 in its condensed state to type I and type II metallic and high-temperature superconductors Critical field, thermal properties, and most magnetic properties are consequences of the energy gap.

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BCS theory: Quantitative Predictions

Transition temperature: Energy gap: Specific Heat:

Magnetic flux through a superconductor ring is quantized, and the flux quantum (fluxoid) is given by: Duration of persistent currents "practically infinite" (in most cases the expected time required for one fluxoid to escape is calculated to be larger than the age of the universe)
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BCS theory: Flux quantization

GL formula for the superconducting current density:

We suppose that the spatial variation of Therefore:

is contained in its phase:

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BCS theory: Type II SupCs

How do we explain the existence of type II superconductors? Theory of type II superconductors developed by G&L + Abrikosov & Gorkov Vortex State : Stable configurations of a superconductor in a magnetic field with rods or plates in the normal state surrounded by the superconducting region. From this model (which is verified experimentally) one can estimate the lower and upper critical fields.

Finally, from thermodynamical stability considerations:

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BCS Theory: Single particle tunelling

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BCS Theory: Josephson tunelling

Semiconductors separated by an insulator junction Due to electron-pair interaction accross the junction
DC Josephson Effect : DC current accross the junction with no applied voltage. DC Josephson Effect : A DC voltage gives rise to current oscillations accross the junction. Macroscopic quantum interference: Total current shows interference effects as a function of the applied magnetic flux. Used to design sensitive magnetometers. Current maxima at :

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Applications
Superconductors are used in NMR machines Mass spectrometers The beam-steering magnets used in particle accelerators Superconductors are used to build Josephson junctions, which are the building blocks of SQUIDs the most sensitive magnetometers known. 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. Josephson junction can be used as a photon detector

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Superconductivity

Questions?

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