Super Conductors
The Building blocks of Future Civilization
DEBASIS RAY
When I first saw the movie Back to The Future, I was really astounded. Not because of the time machine (I was too young to perceive anything about time machine) but by the floating vehicles, trains etc which unlike aero planes didnt fly high above the ground but rather float around within cities and at ground level too. The thought of floating to work place/ school intrigued me and believe it or not I really dreamt about it. But when I got old enough to understand Newtons discovery i.e. Gravity, my dreams about flying to school/college broke. But as I went on with my further inquisition of science, I came across a term Super Conductor. When I started my further enquiry regarding the topic, my dreams of floating scooters, cars and trains got a little hope of achieving realization. I would like to share some of my understanding about superconductors with you in this article.
What are superconductors?
Superconductors are elements, inter-metallic alloy or compounds that will conduct electricity without resistance below a certain temperature. Resistance is undesirable because it produces losses in the energy flowing through the material. Once set in motion, electrical current will flow forever in a closed loop of superconducting material-making it the closest thing to perpetual motion in nature. It is often referred to a s Macroscopic Quantum phenomenon.
Geniuses behind Superconductors :Though its a modern phenomenon and much research is being done to further its boundaries, but it was first discovered by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes of Leiden University who won the Noble Prize in 1913 for his discovery. The other 2 scientist are German researchers Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld who discovered that a superconducting material will repel a magnetic field (below graphic). A magnet moving by a conductor induces currents in the conductor. This is the principle on which the electric generator operates. But, in a superconductor the induced currents exactly mirror the field that would have otherwise penetrated the superconducting material - causing the magnet to be repulsed. This phenomenon is known as strong diamagnetism and is today often referred to as the "Meissner effect" .The Meissner effect is so strong that a magnet can actually be levitated over a superconductive material.
TYPES OF SUPER CONDUCTORS :Super Conductors can be divided into 2 broad types :
1. Type 1 Superconductors : The Type 1 category of superconductors is mainly
comprised of metals and metalloids that show some conductivity at room temperature. They require incredible cold to slow down molecular vibrations sufficiently to facilitate unimpeded electron flow in accordance with what is known as BCS theory. BCS theory suggests that electrons team up in "Cooper pairs" in order to help each other overcome molecular obstacles - much like race cars on a track drafting each other in order to go faster. Scientists call this process phonon-mediated coupling because of the sound packets generated by the flexing of the crystal lattice.
2. Type 2 Superconductors :
Type 2 superconductors - also known as the "hard" superconductors - differ from Type 1 in that their transition from a normal to a superconducting state is gradual across a region of "mixed state" behavior. Since a Type 2 will allow some penetration by an external magnetic field into its surface, this creates some rather novel mesoscopic
phenomena like superconducting "stripes" and "flux-lattice vortices". While there are far too many to list in totality, some of the more interesting Type 2 superconductors are listed below by similarity and with descending Tc's. Where available, the lattice structure of the system is also noted.
USES OF SUPERCONDUCTORS :
Many phenomena which were considered impossible or futuristic or even utopian are now, because of superconductors are seemingly feasible and achievable. The powerful advantages that superconductors offer suggest a wide array of present and future applications in the areas of electric power, transportation, medical imaging and diagnostics, , industrial processing, high energy physics, wireless communications, instrumentation, sensors, radar, high-end computing and even cryogenics. Superconductors are currently used commercially in NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy, a key tool for biotechnology, genomics, pharmaceutical research and materials science work. Industry also applies them in a magnetic process for separating kaolin clay, common filler in paper and ceramic products.
SUPERCONDUCTORS AND FLOATING VEHICLES :
Magnetic-levitation is an application where superconductors perform extremely well. Transport vehicles such as trains can be made to "float" on strong superconducting magnets, virtually eliminating friction between the train and its tracks. Not only would conventional electromagnets waste much of the electrical energy as heat, they would have to be physically much larger than superconducting magnets
The Yamanashi MLX01MagLev train. which opened on April 3, 1997. In December 2003, the MLX01 test vehicle (shown above) attained an incredible speed of 361 mph (581 kph).
This is just the first step to realize the future of vehicles with no tyres and which uses no conventional fuels as a matter of fact it doesnt
uses any kind of fuel at all. The only thing it needs is magnetic strip road and semiconductor base. After that Magnetic levitation and proper electronic manipulation will do the magic. We can even launch spaceships and satellites with the principle of magnetic levitation without consuming much natural fuels. Magnetic levitation also can help us in travelling in outer space where fuel combustion is a complex process due to lack of oxygen. This article might not give to many answers that may arise from my little research. Super conductivity and Superconductors are themselves yet to attain full explanations and applications. But still it surely gives us all a new hope to achieve many of ours childhood dreams of floating to school or workplace. The field of Super Conductivity and Super Conductors invites us to new vistas of future of Day-to-Day usage of Science.
THANK YOU
