We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
False friends are common. Yes, but where True nature links a friendly pair, The blessing is as rich as rare.
-From the Panchatantra Translated by Arthur W. RyderThe magnet of their course is gone, or only points in vain The shore to which their shiver'd sail shall never stretch again.
-Lord Byron, Youth and AgeSuperconductivity was discovered in 1911 by H. Kamerlingh Onnes soon after he succeeded in liquefying helium (Onnes, 1911). He observed that the resistivity of mercury dropped suddenly as its temperature was lowered below a certain critical value TC (for Hg, TC = 4.2 K). Over the years, it was found that many additional elements and compounds similarly transition to a superconducting state. In this state, materials exhibit properties that are strikingly different from the normal state. Below we discuss the most important features of superconductors.
Properties of superconductors
The first important property of a material that undergoes a superconducting transition is that its resistivity drops to zero belowa critical temperature (see Figure 12.1). In a superconducting ring, a persistent electric current flows without any observable attenuation for as long as one is willing to watch.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
