Tag Archives: superconductors
Using superconductors to measure electric current
Simply place two superconductors very close to each other, separated by a small gap, and you’ll have taken a big step towards an important piece of technology called a Josephson junction. When the two superconductors are close to each other … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Bloch oscillation, Josephson junction, Josephson voltage standard, metrology triangle, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Ohm's law, Planck constant, quantum Hall effect, Shapiro steps, SQUID, superconducting quantum interference device, superconductors, thermal noise
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A tale of vortices, skyrmions, paths and shapes
There are many types of superconductors. Some of them can be explained by an early theory of superconductivity called Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory. In these materials, vibrations in the atomic lattice force the electrons in the material to overcome their mutual … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged anyons, BCS theory, chiral magnets, condensed matter physics, David Thouless, Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, materials science, Nanyang Technical University, orbital angular momentum, p-wave superconductor, path dependency, phase transition, quantum computers, quasiparticles, Rashba-Edelstein effect, s-wave superconductor, skyrmion-vortex coupling, skyrmions, solid state physics, superconductors, supercurrent, topological excitations, topology, Vijay Shenoy
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The awesome limits of superconductors
On June 24, a press release from CERN said that scientists and engineers working on upgrading the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had “built and operated … the most powerful electrical transmission line … to date”. The transmission line consisted of … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Abrikosov vortex lattice, Abrikosov vortices, BCS theory, Bose-Einstein condensate, CERN, Cooper pairs, copper, electrical conductivity, electrical resistivity, electrons, flux-flow resistance, Joule heating, Large Hadron Collider, Lisa Randall, magnesium diboride, magnetic flux, Meissner effect, niobium, Pauli's exclusion principle, Praveen Chaddah, protons, silver, superconductors, superfluid helium, titanium, type I superconductors, type II superconductors, vortex pinning
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When cooling down really means slowing down
Consider this post the latest in a loosely defined series about atomic cooling techniques that I’ve been writing since June 2018. Atoms can’t run a temperature, but things made up of atoms, like a chair or table, can become hotter … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Albert Einstein, atomic cooling, atomic trap, Bose-Einstein condensate, Bose-Einstein statistics, Carl Wieman, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, collisional cooling, diatomic molecules, Eric Cornell, Harvard University, laser cooling, Massachusetts Institute of Technoogy, NaLi, niobium nitride, quantum chemistry, quantum computing, S Pancharatnam, Satyendra Nath Bose, Shivaramakrishnan Pancharatnam, Sisyphus cooling, spin polarization, superconductors, superfluids, University of Waterloo, Wolfgang Ketterle
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A stinky superconductor
The next time you smell a whiff of rot in your morning’s eggs, you might not want to throw them away. Instead, you might do better to realise what you’re smelling could be a superconductor (under the right conditions) that’s, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Ashcroft-Ginzburg, BCS theory of supercondictivity, critical temperature, cuprates, hydrogen sulphide, magnesium diboride, Meissner effect, pnictides, sulphur hydride, superconductors
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