31
wire to disappear suddenly when cooled below a temperature of 4 Kelvin
(–269 °C). Absolute zero is known to be 0 K. This discovery was a completely
unexpected phenomenon. He also discovered that a superconducting material
can be returned to the normal state either by passing a sufficiently large current
through it or by applying a sufficiently strong magnetic field to it. But at that
time there was no theory to explain this.
For almost 50 years after K. Onnes' discovery theorists were unable to
develop a fundamental theory of superconductivity. In 1950 physicists Landau
and Ginzburg made a great contribution to the development of superconductivi-
ty theory. They introduced a model which proved to be useful in understanding
electromagnetic properties of superconductors. Finally, in 1957 a satisfactory
theory was presented by American physicists, which won for them in 1972 the
Nobel Prize in physics, Research in superconductors became especially active
since a discovery made in 1986 by IBM
2
scientists in Zurich. They found a me-
tallic ceramic compound to become a superconductor at a temperature well
above
3
the previously achieved record of 23 K.
It was difficult to believe it. However, in 1987 American physicist Paul
Chu informed about a much more sensational discovery: he and his colleagues
produced superconductivity at an unbelievable before temperature 98 К in a
special ceramic material. At once in all leading laboratories throughout the
world superconductors of critical temperature 100 К and higher (that is, above
the boiling temperature of liquid nitrogen) were obtained. Thus, potential tech-
nical uses of high temperature superconductivity seemed to be possible and
practical. Scientists have found a ceramic material that works at room tempera-
ture. But getting superconductors from the laboratory into production will be no
easy task. While the new superconductors are easily made, their quality is often
uneven. Some tend to break when produced, others lose their superconductivity
within minutes or hours. All are extremely difficult to fabricate into wires.
Moreover, scientists lack a full understanding of how ceramics become super-
conductors. This fact makes developing new substances largely a random
process. This is likely to continue until theorists give a fuller explanation of how
superconductivity is produced in new materials.
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